HONOR AND GLORY
by Rata
Summary: SG1 land themselves in the middle of a war which, among others, involve dragons and horses and other mythical creatures. SJ
1. Pain

DISCLAIMER: Not mine, never will be and I swear I make no money over any of this.  
  
A/N: Well, this is a pretty out there idea that ocurred to me and would not let go! Hopefully you will all be pleasantly confused and keep coming back only in the hopes of understanding it all...any comments good or bad are welcome but please, be polite, no need to be overly rude to anyone, no matter how bad the story is...thanks! Enjoy!  
  
Pain. That was all any of them could remember. It was all any of them could taste or smell or hear. Pain. Everywhere. As if that wasn´t enough, their packs laid heavily on their backs, making it hard to breath. They were so worried about breathing and the pain that they never stopped to wonder why it was that they were lying face down on the ground. They didn´t stop to think about how it was they´d ended up so hurt or even where they were. There was only room for two things inside their minds: keep breathing and pain.  
  
The first one to manage to ungracefully flip over to one side was Sam. Big mistake. She was able to take one good breath of air but in return the light in her eyes and face brought more pain. It fed the one which had decided to settle in the back of her throat. She swore it was the most bitter and hateful thing she had ever tasted. For a second she considered going back to facing the dirt, in her mind she figured breathing properly wasn´t as important. Just stop the pain. Make it stop. Make it go away. She thought she heard herself make something which resembled some sort of noise when she felt someone grab her. One person, coming from behind, dragging her away into the shade of some trees. The pain receded a little, it was no longer in the back of her throat, now it seemed lodged in her lungs and she could smell it. She imagined it, a sickly green and gray mist floating inside of her. The person who dragged her didn´t stay, he or she walked away. A few seconds later, the rest of her team was dragged next to her. She couldn´t make out any clear figures, but she felt their prescence. For a second she wondered at that, how could she feel anyone´s presence? She pushed the thought to the innermost part of ther mind, she needed to concentrate, no longer to breath, but now to stay seated, leaning against the tree. The person who´d dragged her crouched in front of her and stared. It was a girl, no older than 20, her face was covered in sweat and dirt, she was clad entirely in blue and in the very centre of her shirt stood out the figure of a dragon, long and snake-like, a deep shade of green, or was it blue? For a second as she turned around it almost looked yellow...it didn´t matter. She turned back to Sam and offered her something to eat, some sort of plant. Sam didn´t have the energy to object. She obediently chewed the plant. It wasn´t long before she started feeling ill, very, very, very ill. It happened fast, almost too fast for her to register it. She leaned forward and to one side, spilling her breakfast all over her gun. She passed out, but this time there was no pain, she was just tired. Very, very tired.  
  
The next time she opened her eyes everything was different. She was lying face up and looking at the deepest shade of blue she´d ever seen. The sun was slightly to her right, it´s warmth making her feel better by the sencond. She sat up. There was the girl. She was sitting, staring. She smiled a very wide and very friendly smile when she saw her. She suddenly heard a voice next to her, "Good morning."  
  
She turned around. It was Colonel O´Neill. He wasn´t wearing his sunglasses or his cap, he wasn´t wearing his jacket, his pack or any of his gear. Sam looked down at herself, she was in pretty much the same state. Daniel and Teal´c were still out, lying on their backs, eyes closed. They seemed to be asleep. The girl didn´t move. Sam looked around, behind them lay all of their gear. It was neatly laid out, as if it were just waiting for them to pick it up and move out. She tried to remember what had happened but she couldn´t. She could remember stepping out of the stargate, and then...pain. She looked over at O´Neill, he was just sitting there too, his confused look probably mirrored hers. The girl kept staring and smiling, suddenly they heard something. Someone was coming. The girl didn´t move, and behind her appeared another girl, who couldn´t be more than a couple of years younger. She sat next to them, she didn´t smile, only stared. They started speaking.  
  
"Is ta la.", said the younger one.  
  
"Iablaka...chami ta. Ni la is ta la.", replied the other. They looked at each other. Obviously, the older girl was in charge, but the younger one didn´t really seem to like what she was hearing.  
  
The younger girl took a deep breath and continued, "Cala sta. Nil mal eia no istama...il mil eai-", she stopped abruptly as Daniel awoke. He passed through the same moment of complete confusion before settling into massive and shared confusion with the other two. Teal´c merely sat up, his expression revealing nothing, as usual. The younger girl took a deep breath and continued, "eaiasta...Kaia is ta la, ni no cam tal."  
  
The older one looked worried for a second and looked back the way the younger girl had come from. She stood. SG-1 noticed for the first time she seemed armed to the teeth. She carried a very heavy looking sword, at least two small daggers and some sort of string, it didn´t look like a wip but they all got a feeling it wasn´t just string. The dragon Sam had noticed was half covered by the strap of a bag she carried, she stuck her hand in it and brought out something which looked like cookies and handed them to SG-1. They took them, but remembering their experience with the last thing this girl had fed them, they were reluctant to eat it. The older girl stood there for a few minutes. Suddenly, she turned around looking closely at the treeline. When she turned back she was more than a little alarmed. She kneeled in front of SG-1, as did the younger girl. They joined hands, and started some sort of chant. "Ia sta chami ta. Ia sta chami sto. Ia sta chami nal ia gat ko." They opened their eyes, they had changed. They glowed with an orange light. In the older one something green glowed, in the younger one, something red. SG-1 was stunned but they couldn´t move. Suddenly, both girls passed their free hands over SG-1´s eyes. They felt as if something was pulled out of them, just for a second. It was over as quickly as it started. Sam shook her head, she felt a little lightheaded suddenly. It seemed the rest of her teamates felt the same. She looked at the older girl, who looked as if she´d eaten something that didn´t quite agree with her. She swallowed and stood. She took a deep breath and to the surprise of four people she spoke to them, "They are coming. We must leave, now. If we do not, you will be captured, all knowledge taken and then killed. Your whole world will perish. We must go. We will protect you and all the knowledge in you."  
  
At that exact moment several things happened all at once. The treeline started moving, or at least it looked that way. Daniel, Teal´c, Sam and O´Neill suddenly realized that it was an army of black and very nasty looking soldiers. The memory of the pain they´d just been through came to mind and they suddenly knew they could not let themselves be taken by the black people. They looked back at the girls, they were already running away, swords drawn. SG-1 didn´t need to be told even once, they collected what they could of their gear and ran with the girls. O´Neill managed to get his back pack, Sam only searched for the transmitor so they could get home, Daniel picked up his jacket and Teal´c his weapon. They did not have time to pick and choose much. They were running down a path, catching up with the girls when they stopped short. The path went downhill and bent over to the right, and up it was coming another army of black people. The girls turned to SG-1, there was nowhere for them to go, they were surrounded on three sides by the army and on the fourth, there was a cliff and a very nasty looking drop. The girls started running back uphill, the older one grabbed Sam by the arm. They came to the edge of the cliff. She turned to them, "Trust me. You will not appreciate this, but it will save your life."  
  
The next thing they knew, Sam and O´Neill were grabbed by the older girl, Daniel and Teal´c by the younger one. They took hold of their arms, took a deep breath, their eyes changed again. There was a cloud rising around them, it whispered of ancient wisdom and great power, before they all went over the cliff, SG-1 swore the cloud took form. They swore it took the shape of two dragons. They saw the ground coming closer and closer. Suddenly, they realized it was no longer so. They were soaring over the ground, over the treeline, so fast they could barely keep their eyes open, they felt the cold air rush all over them and they heard it whistling in their ears. Only Daniel managed to look upwards, he saw the younger girl, riding on the back of what actually was a huge dragon. It was red and slender and it carried him in one hand and Teal´c in the other. After that shock naturally started to settle in. It was just too much. He passed out, his brain shell shocked by too much information, to many possibilities and the fact that he was being carried by a mythical creature didn´t really help. 


	2. Dragons?

Once more, it was Sam who regained consciousness first. She was lying on her back between Daniel and O´Neill. She looked over at both of them, and could just make out the two figures breathing deeply. She sat up and realized they were inside a cave. Everything was damp and cold and there was barely any light. She took a deep breath, trying to remember everything that had happened so far. She still didn´t have a clear picture in her head about what had happened to them back at the gate but she did remember everything else. She took a deep breath, it couldn´t of happened that way, it couldn´t be real. She was interrupted by a voice.  
  
"This is all very real."  
  
Sam turned around. There was the older girl, sitting down, simply watching them. She smiled and stood.  
  
"Come", she said, "I have food. I promise it will not make you sick."  
  
Sam wasn´t really sure about accepting any more food from the girl but she was curious about her. She looked at the rest of her teamates, still out. She stood up and followed the girl outside.  
  
It was amazing. The entrance to the cave was at the very edge of a cliff, near the top of a mountain. From there, Sam could see nothing but endless forests of trees. In the distance, there were several mountains, all of them looked blue, a really deep shade of blue. The sun was still high up and there weren´t many clouds to be seen. The girl sat down near the edge, her feet were hanging over the cliff. Sam sat next to her, she didn´t put her legs over the edge, but she was very close to it.  
  
"I am Kaia.", said the girl. She handed Sam another one of the cookies. Sam took it, she looked down at it. She was very hungry.  
  
"I promise it will not make you sick. That was because you were hurt. It was so you could heal."  
  
Sam had no idea what she was talking about, when did they get hurt? How did they get hurt? The girl noticed her confusion and simply pointed at Sam´s chest. She looked down, there was what appeared to be a burn mark on her shirt. She hadn´t noticed it before...The older girl looked over the cliff and pointed towards the shortest mountain.  
  
"Sailen. The people from the South. They hurt you with their weapons. You were most unlucky.....you walked into a battle, or what was turning into one."  
  
Sam noticed everytime Kaia stopped talking she made a face. As if there was something in her mouth she didn´t like. Sam couldn´t help but stare, Kaia noticed and turned to face Sam. "I am sorry. Your language is.....simple but.....bittersweet. It is a strange one."  
  
Sam couldn´t believe what she was saying, "Bittersweet? Our language, you mean you taste it?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"How?"  
  
"No one knows, there are a lot of things we do not know or understand.....especially about ourselves."  
  
Sam was really confused by this point and decided it was best to go back to the basics. She took one bite of the cookie before asking her next question, the cookie really wasn´t too bad, "Who are you?"  
  
"I am Kaia. I am of the Padeos, my master was Bolshoi. I am a Steward of the Great Ones and in service of the Chitkina."  
  
None of that made any sense to Sam, she started wondering if it wasn´t a better idea to get Daniel. Kaia clearly saw the confusion in Sam and was quick to explain, "Padeos is the name of my people. We are the students of the Dragons. My master was Bolshoi, one of the most powerful dragons to ever live."  
  
Sam needed a minute for all this to sink in, "Dragons? As in the serpent- like creatures?"  
  
Kaia seemed confused. She looked into Sam´s eyes, as if she was looking for something. Sam felt uncomfortable. Kaia smiled after a moment, "You believe dragons do not exist. They do not live on your planet but that does not mean they do not exist. They are also not the cruel and evil creatures you believe they are. They are wise, ancient and compasionate creatures and even though I am human-"  
  
Sam didn´t mean to interrupt her, "Wait.....you´re human?"  
  
"Well.....almost human. I am no longer as I was as a child, it is the price of becoming Padeos and it was the gift my master gave me when he died." Sam noticed Kaia´s eyes were inmersed in sadness at the mention of her master. She felt compasion for the girl. She was about to ask her something else when Kaia stood, "You will come to understand everything soon, I promise. For now, we must wake the rest and go. Iablaka will be back soon."  
  
"Iablaka?"  
  
"The other one. My student. She is.....exceedingly good, but her pride is a problem. She does not trust you. She says you are dangerous and that you should go back the way you came."  
  
Sam felt a little guilty altough she didn´t really know why. She always hated it when the local people didn´t like them very much. She was about to suggest that maybe they could go back when Kaia spoke.  
  
"You cannot go back. The Stardoor is now part of the Sailen lands. The battle was lost. We cannot risk you being captured. Your knowledge would be taken, your home destroyed."  
  
Any one would think that after being stranded a thousand different times on a thousand different planets one would get used to it. In truth, one does not. Sam felt the all to familiar panicky feeling inside of her. A thousand different images went through her mind, she saw SG-1 stranded forever, the SGC trying to get them back but the armies of the black people would defeat them everytime.....  
  
"Do not worry. It will be difficult, but you will go back." Sam stared at Kaia, she got the feeling all of a sudden that the girl was inside her head. Kaia handed Sam a bag with something inside, "All we have to do is cross my lands, the Gyffins will help. Now, you must change clothes, it is not safe for anyone to know you are outsiders. The Sailen people do not know you are here, all those who saw you come through the Stardoor are dead. No one outside my people must know who you are." She headed towards the cave entrance, "I will wake the others, you change. We must go, it is already much past midday and Iablaka will be waiting for us at the base of the cliff."  
  
Kaia disappeared into the cave. Sam took a second to look over the cliff, it was a long way down and there was no apparent way to get back to the ground. She was worried, she really didn´t feel like repeating the flying stunt they had done earlier. She finally came back to her senses and looked in the bag, in it were clothes that looked just like the ones Kaia was wearing. She took them out and examined them, there was a dragon in the centre of the shirt, only this one was brown and looked more like the european style dragon Sam was used to. She changed quickly, before any of her teamates decided to step outside the cave. The clothes fit well enough. When she was done she threw the bag over her shoulder just like Kaia wore hers. She felt out of place and it wasn´t until she bagan picking up her clothes that she realized two things: Kaia had not been wearing shoes and there was still something at the bottom of the bag. Sam took it out, it looked like a rectangular piece of cloth, it was a deep shade of purple. She was still examining it when Kaia came back out. Behind her came Daniel, Teal´c and O´Neill, all of them dressed in much the same way as she was. Kaia was wrapping their clothes into some cloth, tying them off with a piece of rope and fashioning an awkward looking pack for them to carry. As soon as she was done, Kaia noticed Sam holding the purple cloth, she smiled and took an identical one out of her bag and wrapped it around her waist. The result was a skirt. Sam couldn´t help but roll her eyes and she noticed O´Neill smirking out of the corner of her eye, she hated this. Why did it always have to be a skirt? How was she supposed to climb down a cliff wearing that? She didn´t ask Kaia because she was already over the edge of the cliff, climbing down. The skirt did not seem to slow the girl down. 


	3. Trust them

Sam had the added problem of the skirt (which she´d come to hate very quickly). Still, every single one of them except the girl had a very hard time climbing down the mountain. In Daniel´s case it was because he didn´t really have much experience in climbing down steep cliffs with nothing to hold him there except the strength of his own hands, in Teal´c´s case it was because he found it awkward to carry both an uncomfortable pack and his staff weapon, in Sam´s case it was the skirt and in O´Neill´s case it was just the pace the girl kept them at. She didn´t stop and she didn´t wait for them, the most she ever did was call up to them to hurry up. In any case, they made it down in one piece and in less than an hour; however, their problems did not end with the rock climbing.  
  
At the botton they found the other girl, Iablaka. She did not look any friendlier and she seemed upset that they were wearing the clothes of her people. She didn´t really seem to hate anybody in particular, she simply glared at everyone in the same way, even at Kaia.  
  
When all four members of SG-1 were down on the ground again, Kaia turned and spoke to them, "Now we are down. Now you must look like one of our people."  
  
No one on SG-1 understood what she meant, or rather, acted like they didn´t understand.  
  
"Your shoes, the things around your wrists. You must take them off. Once you are with my people you will be able to wear some of them, if it is permitted. For now, you must take them off."  
  
No one was very happy about hearing this, "Hang on just a second.", it was O´Neill, "Now we appreciate all you´re trying to do for us here but we don´t even know who or what you are-"  
  
Iablaka interrupted him, "We are not forcing you to follow us anywhere. If you do no wish to go, you may stay here and die."  
  
"Iablaka! Chami ta! Ni is kal pa tal bala!", Iablaka kept quiet after that. Kaia turned to SG-1, this time she wasn´t smiling, "As wrong as that was.....Iablaka is right. We are the only ones who can help you. The Stardoor belongs to the Sailen now, they will most certainly have tried to destroy it and bury it by now."  
  
"Wait, they´ll actually bury the Stargate?" asked Daniel.  
  
"Yes, they do not know of the secrets of the Stardoor. They cannot have them, we do not share them. Since they cannot use it, they destroy it or they make it so that it does not work anymore."  
  
"Well, why would they do that? I mean you don´t actually expect someone to come through the gate.....do you?"  
  
"It is told in some legends that the masters of our masters will come forth again. In truth we have little hope of this but, we protect and defend the Stardoors nonetheless, even if it is only so that the Sailen do not learn how they work. Some of our people believe it is a useless task but we-"  
  
"Hang on! Maybe I´m a little slow here.....but how do you know they´ll bury the Stargate?" Everyone turned to O´Neill. He shrugged, "What? It´s just a question."  
  
"They have done so before." With that statement all eyes turned back to Kaia. Daniel was the first to speak.  
  
"They´ve done so before? They´ve actually buried other Stargates?"  
  
"Yes. With this one it will be three. If we continue loosing this war, soon, we will not have to worry about guarding any Stardoors at all."  
  
"Wait.....there are more?"  
  
"Yes. There is still one more. There were in the beginning four, one in the very Sail, one to the very Nok, one in Estla and one in Westla." She pointed North, South, East and West, "The Sail Stardoor was destroyed long ago by the Sailen people, the one in the Westla was lost when I was a child and Estla was taken today. Only Nok remains."  
  
Daniel´s mind was racing, "Why would there be four Stargates on a single planet?"  
  
"It was so the masters of our masters would be able to hide us better from their enemies. So they would believe we were all divided in different planets." She smiled and looked at Iablaka, who didn´t seem any happier, "At least that is what legend tells us."  
  
Now all memebers of SG-1 were really confused, but Daniel, as always, somehow seemed to turn his confusion into curiosity and started spitting out questions, "So you weren´t originally from this planet? You were brought here?"  
  
"Yes. By the masters of our masters."  
  
"Okey.....and who are these masters of your masters?"  
  
"We do not know. Few of our own masters remember. We do know they brought us here, they ordered our masters to do so. Even the Sailen, so that we would not perish."  
  
"You mean the Sailen weren´t always your enemies?"  
  
"No, they have always been our enemies, but we cannot survive without them, just as they cannot go on without us." Kaia noticed the looks of the strangers, "The light cannot be light without the dark, the shade cannot exist without the sun-"  
  
"Good cannot exist without evil." Finished Daniel.  
  
"And viceversa." Added Sam. Everyone started at her, this time she was the one who shrugged.  
  
Kaia smiled and nodded before continuing, "We cannot stay here any longer, it is not safe. We are far from where the battle took place but these are still the Border Lands, no one will fight here, but the enemy may still see us all."  
  
"The Border Lands?" asked Daniel. O´Neill answered his question as soon as he was done making it.  
  
"No man´s land.....it´s the border between two enemy territories."  
  
"Yeah I know what it means.....I´m just....."  
  
"Confused?" Daniel threw an annoyed look O´Neill´s way. He ignored it and turned to Kaia, "All right, say we do believe you and we actually go with you. How do we know you can get us back?"  
  
"There is still the fourth! And maybe if you learned to be quiet and listen instead of deny any of this is real, you could get back to your world and we could be rid of you." Iablaka hadn´t meant to actually say that out loud, but sometimes it got too hard for her to keep her mouth shut. Before any of the four humans had any time to react, Kaia had grabbed Iablaka by the collar and had pulled her off the horse. Iablaka couldn´t say she was surprised to hear what her teacher said.  
  
"You go to far child! It seems you know nothing, and the only one who has proven inept is you." She let her up, "You will go ahead of us, without the horse. You go and give warning of our arrival, and if I learn you disrespect our guests again I will have you taken to the nearest human village and you will not come back. You best learn quickly Iablaka, as you are now, you are a shame to the Padeos." Iablaka stared at the ground and mumbled something in their language, then, without looking back at SG-1 she started running away. Just before the path went into the woods a cloud surrounded her. The cloud took the form of a red dragon, and she took off. Kaia didn´t stare at her long. She turned to the others, all anger gone, "Now, you must do as I asked, please. No harm will come to you if the Sailen believe you are one of our own." She took a step back and got on one of the horses, there were three of them, "You may take some time to decide, but not too much."  
  
Daniel, Sam and Teal´c turned to O´Neill. He didn´t like the situation, he didn´t like to be told what to do and he didn´t like to hide. On the other hand, the girl had saved them all, and she seemed genuinly concerned for them. He didn´t know what to say, but he knew he didn´t have to wait long, before thirty seconds had gone by Daniel was already complaining.  
  
"Jack this could be a great opportunity. I mean, imagine the possibilites, we´re talking about four Stargates in one planet. We´re talking about people who actually live with dragons, real life dragons! We can´t just pass this up, I mean, did you notice how they´re not surprised we came through the Stargate, and.....and did you notice how they don´t think we´re Goa´uld or that we´re gods? I mean this is.....amazing.....besides, we´re pretty much stuck here unless they help us-"  
  
"If what they told us is true."  
  
"Well what do you suggest then? We have no idea where we are or where we came from. So we should just what, start walking, hope we bump into the Sailen people and that they take us to the Stargate?"  
  
"No, that´s not what I said.....I just think it´s too soon to be trusting a couple of girls."  
  
Not amazingly, Sam chose this very moment to join the discussion, "Sir with all due respect, they did save us. I mean, I think Daniel is right, they do seem honestly concerned about us and they save our lives."  
  
"Saved us? From what? Did you see who attacked us?"  
  
"No sir, but don´t you think that if they had wanted to kill us, they wouldn´t of gone through all the trouble of getting us here?"  
  
O´Neill knew this was a fight he could not win, but he wasn´t ready to give in yet, "Look I´m not questioning their good intentions either, but I gotta wonder about their abilities to help us. Their just girls."  
  
"They certainly seemed to handle the situation by the Stargate well enough."  
  
O´Neill turned to Teal´c, "Did you have to bring that up?" Teal´c only looked back. O´Neill was finally ready to give in, "Fine, we´ll go."  
  
Kaia brought the other two horse over to them, "Good," she said, "then you will, like I asked, remove the rest of your things and follow me. It is a three day ride to my land, but we will stop tonight on the borders of the Niseos, they will help us gladly." She waited until SG-1 did as they had been told.  
  
It wasn´t easy to move around completely barefoot, and it was a hell of a thing to try to get on top of the horses. Since there were only two, they had to share. After a few minutes, Kaia got off her horse and helped them up theirs. It goes without saying that SG-1 felt very, very much like outsiders. When they were finally on (and wondering how they were to stay on, seeing as how there was no equipment except for a thin cloth and some reigns which didn´t quite seem to reach the mouth of the horse, only the muzzle) they set out. Kaia had insisted that O´Neill had to lead one of the horses, only because he was the leader of the group. She had also insisted that Daniel lead the other, simply because Teal´c would be suspected of many things and it was best if he didn´t seem in charge of anything or anyone in particular. After that, Kaia had put Sam up behind O´Neill, because the horse was slower and could not bear Teal´c and another rider. The Jaffa rode behind Daniel, on a shorter horse but definitely more willing to carry all the extra weight. Kaia led the way, she guided the horse easily and almost didn´t need to use the reigns. Just before they entered the treeline she hung back and waited for O´Neill to catch up to her, a second before she let her horse run wild she said to him, "I am not a girl." 


	4. Niseos

For the first couple of hours all they could think about was not falling off; after the fourth hour, their minds started wondering wether or not they could possibly be any more uncomfortable; the sixth hour passed with them only thinking they would be sore in the morning but by the seventh hour, they weren´t thinking anything at all. Their feet were asleep, their backs sore and there is only so much time any one can take sitting on top of a horse. They were also hungry. They were just starting to get desperate when Kaia brought the horses to an easy walk, and after a few minutes, they walked into a clearing, full of tents and people. They were almost to tired to notice these people were dressed mostly in brown, that they wore shoes and they had no drawings anywhere on their clothes, but they did all wear a sort of pendant in the shape of a horse.  
  
Kaia stopped at the very centre of the settlement and got off her horse. SG- 1 did the same, but with little or no grace at all. It took all their concentration just to follow the girl, who went straight into the biggest tent around. Once inside, they noticed there were fine tapestries hanging from the ceiling, serving as walls. All of them had horses on them, some of them looked quite old. On these, the horses had a strange sort of horn, they were unicorns. In the very middle there was a square table, with benches all around. There was no one sitting there, but just after it there was a man pacing. He looked about fifty, his clothes were much the same as the ones Kaia was wearing and the ones the people had outside, only there were two lines running down the arms of his shirt, one was black and the other, white. He stopped as soon as he noticed them come in. He smiled weakly at Kaia and she bowed down, holding her arms in front of her, palms up. The man joined the tips of his fingers, held them in front of his eyes and them opened his hands, making a half circle with his arms. As soon as Kaia rose she turned to SG-1.  
  
"You may sit if you like. Take food and water. You must be tired."  
  
They didn´t need to be told twice. They plopped down on the benches and looked at the table. There was, in fact, food and drink there. It was mostly dried fruit of some kind and the drink was nothing more than water, but they took it anyway. Meanwhile Kaia and the man talked. After a few minutes of hushed conversation, they came to the table, but they didn´t sit.  
  
"This is Laska. He is in command of the Niseos, he is their highest master."  
  
The man, Laska, greeted them in the same way he´d greeted Kaia. SG-1 didn´t really know how to react, they did stop eating for a second and O´Neill actually managed to stand straight and nod his head stiffly. Laska smiled. Kaia continued.  
  
"He has agreed to help us. Here you may learn of the Niseos and the Loshati and all of their history and legends. Nothing will be kept from you. I do warn you, you cannot expect to be given all the answers right away, this is the time for war." She sat down, Laska stood still, "Now, Laska has asked that you share with him some information. He wishes to understand you as I do. I realize I took knowledge without your permission but it was urgent. Now we have time, would you allow him to share some of your knowledge?"  
  
Daniel was the first to speak up, which was fine by everyone else, "Knowledge.....do you mean our language?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"He´s asking permission to learn our language?"  
  
"Yes. As I learned it. As Iablaka learned it."  
  
"He can do that?"  
  
"No. I can, I will pass him the knowledge and then, if you wish it, he may pass some of his knowledge to you."  
  
"He wants us to learn his language?"  
  
"You must. How else are you to learn of them? I know you wish to learn, especially you Daniel," Daniel had to admit, he was a little surprised to hear the girl call him by his name, "the only way you will learn is by understanding them. Simply by understanding the language of a people you can begin to understand the people themselves."  
  
Daniel didn´t think the conversation made much sense and he didn´t really care at the moment. He was beyond tired and all he wanted to do was sleep. A part of him was thrilled that he would be able to talk to these people directly, another part of him wondered if it was wise to be "implanted" all that knowledge but most of him didn´t have the energy to care. He shrugged and looked at O´Neill, who nodded at Daniel and warned him to be careful. After that, Kaia stood up and walked over to Laska. She put her hands over his eyes and spoke.  
  
"Ia sta chami ta. Ia sta chami sto. Ia sta chami nal ia gat ko."  
  
When Laska opened his eyes he quickly reached for some water. After he was done drinking it he spoke, in perfect English to the surprise of SG-1.  
  
"Kaia was right. Bittersweet but simple.....it is strange. So many words to say so little, but I suppose it is your way and as such, I should not judge it or question it." He bowed a little, "You may stay here. Soon someone will come and show you where you may sleep. Kaia tells me you have some equipment you do not wish to part with, I cannot allow your.....technology," he really seemed to hate that word, "to go about us but we at least can solve the problem of your.....shoes. You may sleep until tonight and then, we will eat and you will learn about us and we will learn about you. We will share knowledge and food and so be bonded in aliance and friendship. In the morning you will set out and if Fate and Life permitt it, we may meet again."  
  
With that he turned and left. Kaia didn´t follow. She sat in front of O´Neill, "He has helped you. He is a good leader and a fine master. Now, will you accept his knowledge?"  
  
O´Neill backed away a little, accidentally bumping into Sam, "Well that´s more Daniel´s.....thing."  
  
Kaia shook her head, "No. You must all learn, you must all understand. They will not keep anything from you and they will not harm you. You must all undestand, if not, how are you to learn? I have not led you to harm, will you still not trust me?"  
  
O´Neill would of liked to say no but the truth was this girl had proven herself so far. He took a deep breath and went back to were he was sitting before backing away, "All right. Do it."  
  
He didn´t feel much of anything. It was very much like when Kaia had first crouched in front of them and had put her hand over their eyes only this time they felt as if they were being given something. Kaia´s eyes turned a strange color and then it was all over. He didn´t feel any different and so Kaia moved on to Sam, then to Teal´c and then to Daniel. As soon as she was done a young boy walked into the tent. He held his fingers up as Laska had done and he bowed down on one knee, when he spoke, SG-1 undersood him. That was a big shock.  
  
"The stranger´s quarters are ready. I will lead you to them. Laska says they are guests and must be treated as such." He stood up and walked out. Kaia followed him, as did SG-1, but only after a second. What the hell had the girl just done to them? 


	5. Minutes and other farfetched things

They didn´t have to walk very far, only a few hundred meters. They were taken into a tent which looked, and was decorated, much like the one they´d just been in, only much much smaller. On the floor there were four thin mattresses. Their gear had been taken out of the rudimentary packs and had been laid out in a corner. There was a small table at the center of the room, it had fresh fruit, water and some other liquid SG-1 couldn´t identify, but they stayed away from it, it smelled very much like something alcoholic. Kaia only stayed with them long enough to explain they would not be disturbed until the sun had set, then she left, looking for Laska. None of the members of SG-1 waited very long to make themselves comfortable, they all basically collapsed on the mattresses. They were comfortable enough to sleep in and so they did.  
  
The next thing any of them knew, it was already dark. Teal´c was in a deep, deep sleep when he suddenly felt himself being shaken. He opened his eyes, it was Kaia. She smiled at him and held out something for him, it was a pair of shoes. Sort-off. Teal´c had learned much about shoes in his time on Earth, these were a strange mix between sandals and actual shoes. He took them, gratefully. By the time he finished putting them on the rest of his teammates were up. They all took the shoes. Teal´c was just waiting for them to be done when he noticed something: at the foot of the mattress someone had left another neatly folded change of clothes and; Kaia had changed too. She was wearing a lot less clothes. He looked over at Sam, he knew she would not enjoy this.  
  
Teal´c was right. Sam noticed right away Kaia´s change of clothes but had decided to ignore it. She accepted the shoes and put them on, they were comfortable, or at least better than going around barefoot. Kaia poured herself a glass of water and sat down. She waited for SG-1 to be up and about before breaking it to them.  
  
"Now that you are up, you must change."  
  
O´Neill tried to look somewhere between indignant and clueless, Daniel found it all very fascinating, Teal´c raised an eyebrow and Sam just.....sighed, very heavily. Kaia pointed to the folded clothes before leaving the tent. She said nothing else, and she didn´t need to, SG-1 had started to understand the importance of earning the trust of these people and of trusting them. They examined the clothes quickly. It wasn´t so bad, they were the same color as the ones they were wearing now, the pants didn´t quite reach the ankles though and the shirt was simply a short- sleeved version of the ones they had on. Sam knew it could not be so simple. She unfolded her clothes, and she found just what she had expected.  
  
Kaia had been wearing no pants this time, only a skirt which reached a little bit higher than her knee and was cut in a diagonal way, so that one side actually did reach down lower than her knee. Her shirt was no longer long-sleeved but actually sleeve-less and hung loosely around her. It had also reached down just to where the skirt clung to her hips. It was of another material which seemed somehow shinnier and less heavy. The dragon was not gone, but it did seem to be painted on in a much more elegant way. Her hair had been let down and she had been wearing the same kind of shoe/sandal that she had just handed them. Sam only stared down at the clothes she was supposed to change into, her mind was wondering two things: why did it always have to be a skirt?; where was she supposed to change? Her musing were interrupted by O´Neill´s voice, which sounded just a little to cheery. "When in Rome, Major....."  
  
She turned and tried to make him combust with her eyes, which didn´t work. He smiled and shrugged before bending down to pick up his own clothes.  
  
It was more than a few minutes before the four strangers came out of the tent. They had changed and looked awkward and self-aware, but no one looked it more than the woman. Kaia wondered about that. She had seen a lot of things in her mind, some things were wonderful others were not so. Kaia was very interested in Sam, she had never before met any woman from so far away. All the legends talked about masters and great lords and evil beings coming and going through the Stardoor, none of them ever mentioned a woman. She stood and signaled for them to come over to her. They did. She signaled for them to sit and they did.  
  
It was all amazing. They had built an enormous fire in the middle of the encampment, with several smaller bonfires all over the place. There were great plates with food on them, curiously nothing that didn´t look like some sort of fruit or vegetable, but there were several things which looked like giant oatmeal cookies, others like very small cakes and some looked just like ordinary loaves of bread. All of the members of SG-1 were a bit nervous about eating anything here, but they couldn´t really hold out for very long: one, they had already eaten things; two, they didn´t have any of their rations; three, they were still starving. It didn´t even take them long before they started drinking the alcoholic beverage they´d been left in their tent. Soon, they were also talking to people. Kaia had been right, they did learn a lot of things.  
  
Among the first things they did learn was that Laska wasn´t called the "Highest Master" simply because he was in command, but because he wasn´t even human. Laska was a Loshati. Simply put, he was a horse, not a normal horse obviously, but his true form was that of a horse. They also learned that the Loshati did not always look like horses, they had once been very much like the unicorns most of SG-1 knew from Earth myths. The story of the Loshati was a sad one:  
Once, the forces of Light and of Dark had clashed together and the result was the Universe and everything in it. Now animals came into being and they were all given certain natures and instincts so they might survive in the newly formed world, but there was one creature who had none of that:humans. Humans were created in the very center of the storm the Light and Dark had created and so, these two forces had melted into him. Men were just as good and they were evil and their survival depended greatly upon balance, but they did not realize that, because they still had no knowledge. The result of this was that they were constantly at war with each other, with nature and most animals. Because of this, the Creatures of the Light took pity on mankind and there came forth four great creatures to guide them: Gyffins, Sabaki, Loshati and Dragons. Now, the Loshati didn´t just want to guide men, they wanted to actually teach him, help him. For this to happen, they came to men and made them their students but, just as the Creatures of the Light had pitied men, the Creatures of the Dark had envied and hated them. The Creatures of the Dark send forth no beings, just shadows and nightmares, plague, disease and jealousy; treachery and lies; pride and injustice. These began to take a hold of men´s dreams and soon enough they began suspecting the Loshati (for they were the only creatures they had actually interacted with so far, none of the other three had faced men) and one night they came upon the ten Great Ones who guided them. Seven were killed, two fled further into the world of men, eventually loosing all powers (and that was the beginning of horses, the animals) and the one that survived went back to the Nok, to the World of Light. He could not be healed, but he made the Dragons promise they would still help men, for they were not wholly evil and balance had to be reached. It was many, many years before any of the other Creatures of the Light ventured out into the world of men, but slowly they did. There came more of the Loshati, but being afraid men would try to destroy them again, they took the shape of horses, and it was by giving up the horn of the unicorns and they also gave up the right to ever return to the Nok in life. Dragons came too, but they were driven back by men once more. It was at this moment that the Second Pact took place, and finally all four Creatures of the Light came forth into the world of men, and it was the beginning of Niseos and Padeos and of the war against the Sailen, the World of Dark, and the men from the South.  
  
Daniel´s mind went a mile a second, he could not believe what he was hearing! It was a whole knew mythology to him, he´d never heard anything of the sort back on Earth. He started suspecting that the culture he was seeing now had to have of developed completely off Earth, which meant that if they had been brought through the Stargate (which Kaia had hinted was what had happened, but had also told him he must wait until they were in her land to discuss it) at a fairly primitive stage. There was also no mention of the Goa´uld in the story, nor of any creature like the Goa´uld, which posed the question: if they didn´t know the Goa´uld then they weren´t brought to this planet by them, then who brought them here? Daniel spend every second he could that night talking to Laska, who was more than eager to talk about his people. He learned a great deal: how the Niseos were only the humans who were taken in by the Loshati; how the Niseos did not have one master who cared for them, but they were raised by other Niseos and trained by several Loshati.....it seemed as if his mind couldn´t learn fast enough.  
  
Teal´c spend the evening listening to Daniel. His features didn´t reveal anything, but he did find it all very fascinating. Besides, it never hurt to know about the history of the people you were with.  
  
Sam and O´Neill had a wholly different experience that night. They spend the evening with Kaia, mostly because Iablaka had stormed off shorty after seeing they were present and because Daniel would just tell them all that he had learned later. They found themselves wrapped up in a conversation about keeping time for quite a few hours.  
  
Kaia had taken the liberty of looking at some of the things SG-1 had brought along, particularly their watches. She said she had understood the concept of their time, of how long was a day and how many days were in a year, but she just did not seem to understand the use of keeping track of minutes, not to mention seconds. She had difficulty with the months, too.  
  
"You seem too preocupied with time.....how can you accomplish anything if you do nothing but trouble yourself about how long it will take you?"  
  
"Well, time if very important on Earth, we plan all kinds of activities based on our measurments of it-"  
  
"Yes, but why? It will still take you ten of your mintues to eat your morning meal, wether you count them or not. Counting them seems redundant and unecessary."  
  
"It may seem that way but our entire society is based on time, on how much of it we assign to certain tasks....."  
  
O´Neill had to interrupt the two women as a sudden thought occurred to him.  
  
"Speaking of time.....what time is it?"  
  
Kaia seemed confused, "I do not know.....we do not keep time but as I understand it.....in your hours, it might be close to 18 hours since you arrived."  
  
O´Neill took a second to calculate in his head, it couldn´t be, could it?  
  
Sam looked at her CO and then a Kaia, "Wait, 18 hours? It´s not possible, you said yourself it was after midday when we set out on the horses and the sun couldn´t of set more than a few hours ago....."  
  
"Yes, but as I understand it, you measure your days by the rotation of your planet, one turn on it´s own axis is one day, which you measure in 24 hours, correct?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Our planet is different, I thought about this as we rode here, if I am correct, our days have the equivalent of 20 of your hours for the light and 20 for the dark."  
  
"You have 40 hour days?"  
  
"In your hours, yes."  
  
Everything suddenly started coming apart. O´Neill tried to calculate how many Earth-days fit in one day of this planet and Sam kicked herself mentally for not anticipating the difference in time it would take for this planet to complete one rotation. Kaia smiled reassuringly.  
  
"Do not worry. It is a three day journey to my lands, after that it will be no more than two days until you are back on your planet. You can do nothing to speed the passing of the sun or our journey, it would kill you to try. Do not worry."  
  
At that moment something odd happened. Both O´Neill and Sam did stop worrying. In the back of their minds they did feel as if they should be concerned but somehow it didn´t seem as tragic now. They didn´t know if it was something Kaia was doing to them, it was now obvious that she had some sort of telepathic abilities, or the stuff they were drinking. What was it anyway? How much had they had? Not more than one glass. Then why was the whole world suddenly spinning? But they didn´t worry, they didn´t have to, they were among friends. What could possibly go wrong? 


	6. Vrigda

Light. Ouch. Move. Ouch. Breath. Allright.....no, wrong. Ouch. What happened? A horse? No a Laska?, no.....Loshati! Ouch, not so fast. What am I doing here? Where am I? Wait, wasn´t there a fire around here? Too fast! Too fast! Up too fast! I think I´m going to be sick.....maybe.....possibly.....no, I´m not! Good. What the hell was I drinking anyway? It wasn´t water. Note to self: Do not drink on foreign planets. My head.....not so bad. Maybe being hungover isn´t so bad afterall. Did I just seriously say that? No. I thought it! Nevermind.....pretty stupid idea. Right, back to practical matters. Up.....Ok, not too bad. All right, why am I wearing only one shoe? It´s not actually a shoe you know.....I know! It´s a....well a.....a shoe! What difference does it make anyway! I´m still missing one! Missing.....we are! Aren´t we? No, we´re just.....delayed, we´ll be back. I hope. No! No! I know we´ll be back! Yes, that´s right.....no, wait, wait, not right, not right! Too much light, my head is spinning.....just like last night. Oh my g-.....well I certainly hope I did nothing wrong, probably not, I never do anything wrong. Why is that? Speaking of that.....what is that noise? Oh right.....just the rest of the guys.....I mean team! ´Cause I ah, would never forget Sam. She´d kill me if she knew about this, maybe.....wait? Isn´t that a bit too close for military comfort? Stop staring! Stop staring! They would both kill me if they caught me staring.....maybe Sam wouldn´t, no wait.....nah! She wouldn´t kill me.....well, this is awkward.....Silence....silence.....silence.....sort off, who the hell is snoring so loudly anyway!?! I wonder.....NO!! It can´t be.....I never would of thought those kinds of sounds.....right, back to more practical matters. Uhm.....my head!.....is still attached, although you wouldn´t really know it.....but not too bad, hmm.....I´m hungry. Wait, wasn´t I just hungover? Apparently not! I´m hungry I wonder if-  
  
"Oh-my-head....."  
  
Daniel looked down at O´Neill as he squirmed for a bit and waited until he´d managed to sit up to greet him. All he got for his perfectly cheery "Good morning" was a half wave which he didn´t really know if it meant –Good morning to you too- or –Get lost-. In any case, Daniel poured himself a glass of water and started drinking. It wasn´t long before O´Neill joined him. He´d stopped complaining, surprised his hangover had been so.....quick. Both men sat in silence, trying to piece together what it was that had happened last night. O´Neill remembered something about time.....and a lot of hours. Daniel had fared better, he remembered most of what he´d been told, or at least he thought he did. They didn´t know how long they sat there, all they did know was that all of a sudden a disheveled looking Carter wearing no shoes whatsoever joined them at the table. She eyed both men wearily. She had no clue what had happened either. Teal´c was the last one to get up, but he seemed neither hung over, disheveled nor having trouble remembering anything that he´d done the night before.  
  
A boy suddenly interrupted their perfectly achieved awkward silence. He came into the tent, as if it were his own home. He bowed quickly to the four people inside and simply told them, "They are back!" Then, he rushed outside.  
  
"Well, he certainly doesn´t look hung over....." said O´Neill, with a bit of envy leaking out in his voice. Daniel looked confused, Carter distressed. Teal´c just raised an eyebrow. It wasn´t long before they started hearing a lot of people moving around outside. Curiousity finally got the best of them and they got up and went outside.  
  
All of the people in the camp were gathered at the entrance, the same one SG-1 had used the previous day. People were coming. It was a small group: an old man, a boy, two girls and a young man, who looked to be about the same age as Kaia. O´Neill jumped and said something about having the "Hell scared" out of him as Laska joined them and greeted them. Laska didn´t understand, he frowned but said nothing about it. Daniel asked him what was going on.  
  
"The –vrigda- are back. Kaia´s –vrigda- survived the battle yesterday."  
  
"Vrigda? Is that some sort of group or team.....?"  
  
"Yes, you are a vrigda, all of you. That is Kaia´s vrigda."  
  
"Okey and, how does this vrigda work?"  
  
"There must be one of each of our four people, sometimes there is also one human, but not in this case. They are led by the best, Kaia leads them, along with Vozem."  
  
"Vozem? Who´s that?"  
  
"The Niseos, the other like Kaia."  
  
"Ah.....the young man?"  
  
"Not so young as I understand your years but yes.....that is Vozem."  
  
"Well this is great, your vrigdas seem to work much in the same way as our team does." Daniel turned to O´Neill, who was not as fascinated as the archeologist, "This is amazing! They have basically the same basic division for command.....they work in small teams, or at least some of them do, and they might even have a similar chain of command and maybe even some of the rules and regula-"  
  
Daniel´s rambling was cut very short as he saw something which brought down his whole theory about the similarities between SG-1 and this vrigda: Kaia had just separated herself from the crowd, she had ran towards her team, jumped into Vozem´s arms and was kissing him, quite passionately. Daniel looked over at his teamates, who shared his surprise, even Teal´c was taken aback. Both his eyebrows were raised. No one else seemed to notice this. Laska turned to them.  
  
"Is something wrong Daniel?"  
  
"Uhm.....no it´s just that in our planet.....there are certain rules about military officers being so.....close."  
  
"I do not understand. You are not allowed to form bonds of affection?"  
  
"Ah well it´s not that.....it´s just that, -that-", he pointed in Kaia´s and Vozem´s way, "kind of affection is just.....off limits."  
  
"It is a strange place then where you come from. Are not your soldiers separated from the rest of your people, do they not fight away from their own homes and lands?"  
  
"Well yes, sometimes.....they do try to avoid civilians.....sort off."  
  
"Then if they are isolated from the rest of your people, how can they not allow certain feelings? One cannot control what the heart feels and it would be quite inefficient to expect two people to hide or ignore any feelings.....when the heart is at peace, the mind can truly reach balance and in the case of our warriors, they do all the better in battle." Laska chuckled at the still stunned faces of the four strangers before walking towards the Vridga. When he got close enough, all the members of it stood straight and still and bowed in the ways of their people: Kaia, the old man and Iablaka, with their palms up; Vozem and the boy, making a half circle with their arms; the two girls, simply lowering their heads. Laska greeted them and then pointed at the four strangers, and the Vrigda came closer.  
  
The old man simply stared at them but said nothing, the two girls hung back, as did the boy but, Vozem did speak to them. He seemed just as ready to trust them and help them as Kaia had.  
  
"You are the four who came through the Stardoor.....", his eyes only stopped briefly on Teal´c, "You are humans.....Kaia says you are great warriors."  
  
This only added to their confusion, because as far as SG-1 remembered, they had yet to fight anyone on this planet. Kaia smiled and came forth, "Do not worry, it is all here." She pointed at their heads.  
  
-As if that explains everything- Thought O´Neill. Kaia turned at once to him, she didn´t stop smiling and she spoke more to Vozem than anyone else.  
  
"This is their leader. He is not too certain about trusting us yet and he seems to be mostly confused."  
  
O´Neill didn´t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. In any case, Vozem bowed to him in the way of his people and then asked them to come with him. He was, unlike Iablaka, very curious about them, although he carefully avoided discussing Teal´c or pointing out the obvious differences between the Jaffa and the rest of SG-1. Vozem questioned them about a lot of different things, but it wasn´t until they were back inside a tent that he started asking them specific things about their world, about themselves, and about the Stargate. They didn´t have much time though, in only the time it took Vozem and the others to eat something and find horses, they were all ready to move again. SG-1 was led back to their tent to change clothes and gather their things by the same boy who had come into their tent earlier, they were given no more than ten minutes to be ready. When they came out, they saw that there were horses ready for them. The team sighed internally, they really weren´t up for another seven hour ride on horseback, they enjoyed walking a lot more (it was less painful and a lot easier to handle). They were reassured by Kaia that they would be home within six days and that if they made good time it would be sooner, but none of it made SG-1 feel any better. Hesitantly, they got back on the horses. They weren´t really so happy or fascinated anymore, they were back on the horses again, running again, struggling to stay on, they had to share them again and, they weren´t wearing any shoes.....again. 


	7. Stardoors and other evils of this world

This time the running stopped after only a couple of hours. Kaia and Vozem reared the horses to a stop all of a sudden, they had come out of the woods and a huge field lay ahead of them, on the horizon, a small mountain range could be seen, Kaia explained to them that that was where they were heading. It seemed an awfully long distance, especially if they were going to have to ride and share horses all the way. Kaia laughed once again.  
  
"You worry too much Jack, in a few more hours, you will be used to the horse. This is our people´s land, there are no enemies here, it will be an easy ride."  
  
O´Neill waited until he was off the horse to answer, "Ok, what the hell is going on here? I mean, we never introduced ourselves properly and as you quite clearly pointed out to your ah....." He pointed Vozem´s way, "well you know.....I am mostly confused."  
  
"Very well, we may stop for a while. What do you wish to know?"  
  
"Let´s start with the basics, who are you?"  
  
"I am Kaia, of the Padeos I am Steward-"  
  
"Yeah I know that part! Ok, what is it that you do, exactly?"  
  
"Oh.....well in your words I am a warrior. I fight against the Sailen people, to protect humans."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Why protect humans? Because they are the only creatures in all of the universe who can truly achieve balance between good and evil, they are the only ones who can truly be free, they-"  
  
"I mean, why do you fight these Sailen? What did they ever do to you?"  
  
"They are of the Dark we of the Light, we have no choice, we must always struggle against each other. It is the only way to achieve balance."  
  
"So this war.....there´s no reason for it?"  
  
"Yes well, reasons there are. Many. Among them, they invade our lands, kill humans, enslave them and they would take over the Stardoors only to use them to their advantage, only to feed their hunger for conquest and control."  
  
"All right. Now, about the Stargate, you mentioned there were four of them here."  
  
"Yes. Three of them are now gone. Only Nok remains."  
  
"Right.....why were there so many to begin with?"  
  
"We are not sure." She sat down on the grass. O´Neill and the rest of his team joined her. All the rest stayed put next to their own horses, "Legend says that we were brought here by the masters of our masters. We came from a place far away, we came from a place we call the "Slave Planet". In our legend, we were originally from this place, this is where our masters lived and so did humans but, one day, something happened. For many, many years we did not know. All we knew was that there was danger and that our masters could not defend us all so they choose among the people of the planet and we were all brought here, so that we would continue. All we have to do is live our lives the way we were taught and one day, the masters of our masters will come back through the Stardoors and then all will be made clear, but in the mean time, we are forbidden to use them."  
  
"Ok so you were brought here by these "masters", what were they like?"  
  
"We have no knowledge of them, except that our masters respect them, love them even. They brought us here to be saved."  
  
"From what?"  
  
"As I said, for many, many years we did not know. Then," She took a deep breath. Daniel moved in closer, he couldn´t get enough of this, "the Goa´uld came. They came through the Stardoor, they claimed to be our gods.....they killed our people they took us, wanted to make us hosts."  
  
This was a shock. Not just a shock, a BIG shock. SG-1´s collective mouth hung open in surprise. The first one to be able to make a noise was Daniel but he was quickly cut off by Kaia.  
  
"There was war. At first, they wanted hosts, then they wanted to destroy us. We defeat them. They came back, in great ships. Our masters fought with us, they were beaten back. Ever since then we have guarded the Stardoors more carefully, we did not understand their power." Kaia silenced Daniel once more, "Wait. During the war, the Sailen began to negociate with the Goa´uld, they traded technology for human slaves and hosts. Even after the Goa´uld left, the Sailen kept the weapons they had gained. Recently, they have managed to, almost, make copies. You were shot with these weapons. We have no such thing. They also have other.....things.....they can torture you, inflict great pain. That is why we had to save you, that is why we can not allow you to be found. You would be tortured, knowledge taken and your planet would be destroyed. Also, our world is divided, not just in the Dark and the Light, the humans we protect are starting to believe we are their servants, some have even begun to speak of treason on our part. The Padeos and the Niseos are dying, our masters will no longer come into the villages of men. The Gyffins and the Sabaki are beginning to fall back into the Nok. If the Sailen or the humans find out about you, it will be the end of it all, our people will die."  
  
Daniel´s head was trying to wrap itself around the fact that these people were, apparently, transporter out of (he assumed) Earth before the Goa´uld were ever there. Teal´c was cursing his former masters (once again). Sam was suddenly feeling very sorry for Kaia and the others (even Iablaka) and O´Neill had one question he had to ask before he could wallow in his confusion (like the rest of his team). It was out of his mouth before he even realized it.  
  
"How did you defeat the Goa´uld?"  
  
Vozem was the one to answer that, "We are not sure. If you mean in war: the Padeos, as you have already noticed, posses the ability to look into other´s minds and the Goa´uld were to proud, it was easy enough to anticipate their attacks and their tactics. If you mean the hosts: we cannot be taken. The Goa´uld tried, several times, but they never survived long."  
  
"You´re talking about an immune system agains the Goa´uld? How?"  
  
"As I said Daniel, we do not know. The Goa´uld are nothing more than parasites and they would be nothing more than a short story if the trading between them and the Sailen had not occurred."  
  
"What about the host? Did they die?"  
  
"No. The parasite was rejected, it could not survive in our bodies, nor take control of our minds. Our masters have never explained it to us, they merely call it the Gift of the Light."  
  
"The Gift of Light.....is that a device or some sort off-"  
  
"It is something we carry in our soul, Daniel. The Gift of Light does not only refer to the Goa´uld, it refers to all that we gain when we become Niseos or Padeos or are born Gyffin or Sabaki."  
  
Kaia stood up and looked down at the four strangers, "Is there anything else you wish to know?"  
  
"Uh.....yeah sure, uhm.....who are they?" Daniel pointed at the old man, two girls and young man.  
  
"They are our vrigda. Stari is the eldest, Padeos, a Steward like myself only of not such a high house. Malinki, the young boy, one day he may be Niseos, if he learns that life cannot be lived solely by the rules. The girls, Alma and Koshka, they are Gyffin and Sabaki, under our care, for they were not born within their people."  
  
"And what exactly do you do, your ah.....vrigda....."  
  
"We are a small group, we function that way. We are in charge of protecting the Stardoors and our masters, we guard the borders of the Nok. Whenever there is a battle and our help is needed, we join it. There are ten vrigda in our world, and all of us answer to our own high leaders or masters and one human."  
  
"And this human, he´s.....?"  
  
"A nuisance, but, he commands the armies of men. We must explain our actions to him, although we must follow no order from him. We do not serve him."  
  
It was at this moment that they noticed how it was there, subtle, but there. Resentment. Kaia was right: their world was in trouble. SG-1 didn´t understand at the time, but they had stepped into a world that was about to collapse on itself. The war between the Light and the Dark would never stop, but the Light now had another problem: men were growing restless in the shadow of their protection and they were beginning to want more. More lands, more people, more servants. Not all men were like this, unfortunately, the most powerful ruler of men was and that was enough to upset the balance, which had been threatening to fall for many centuries. 


	8. Riding

After the rest, no one spoke much. SG-1 was deep in thought, and it seemed that the rest of the company was as well. Iablaka kept throwing glances at them, sometimes in anger sometimes in something else, maybe pity. Vozem and Kaia took to speaking in hushed voices among themselves, discussing the way the battle had gone: the Chitkina people had lost the battle, the Sailen had indeed buried the Stardoor and had, foolishly, burned or taken whatever gear SG-1 had left behind. Stari listened to the discussion patiently, occasionally jumping in, mostly nodding. The girls, Alma and Koshka, seeme bored, really bored. They rode silently, one in front of the other, their eyes simply looking forward. Malinki rode behind them all, and O´Neill noticed he mostly stared at Iablaka, and looked worried. It was another couple of hours before they stopped again, the mountains now looked considerably closer.  
  
They all got off the horses, let them loose and sat in a circle. Neither Kaia not Vozem spoke much, they were deep in thought, finally, it was Stari who decided to speak to the strangers.  
  
"You are surprised to hear of the events in our history, yes?"  
  
"You could say that." Replied O´Neill.  
  
"Our world is complicated, as I´m sure yours is but.....you do not undersand ours. You also worry about going back to your home, yes?"  
  
"A little."  
  
"It weights heavily on your minds. All of your minds. Do not worry, the Gyffins may be stubborn, sometimes even foolish, but they understand as well as the rest of us the danger of you staying here."  
  
"So these, Gyffins, they´re just gonna let us dial home?"  
  
"Yes. I know Kaia would have you remain for some time, she wishes to learn from you. She would even push so that you would be allowed to return but.....that may not ever be possible. Our world is falling appart, but still, we will help you, if we can."  
  
Silence was the only answer to the old man´s offering because what SG-1 wanted from them, they weren´t too sure if they should even ask for. Stari didn´t look at them, but stared at the sky for a while, he suddenly sighed.  
  
"You wish to learn how we rejected the parasites but you are afraid to ask. Do not be. Depending on the situation of our forces and our relations with the human leader, Kaia may just come with you. She truly believes now that your planet is the "Slave Planet" if that is so, then it was also our home. She trusts you, she knows you would not lead her into harm but....." His voice dropped to just above a whisper, "I know there are dangers on your planet. I have seen them through you. Your world is divided too, and into a lot more pieces than ours. Even among your own men, some are not trustworthy, Kaia believes you would protect her from these men but I must ask you now, would you really?"  
  
O´Neill looked at the rest of the company and his team. He couldn´t explain it, but even though Kaia had meddled inside his head without his permission, he still tursted her. She had told them everything they had asked and she seemed to only want to send them on their way. Had the circumstances been different and he´d been the one to save Kaia, he wasn´t sure he would of trusted her with so much information. He was still trying to answer the old man when the girls returned, looking much happier than before. His train of thought was lost, when did those girls leave anyway?  
  
They had apparently gone in search of food. They had found very little, but they did manage to fill some water bags which they had apparently carried off when no one else had been looking. They spoke hurriedly in a language that no one on SG-1 understood, Kaia smiled at them. With just one word, the girls were off again, they went to fetch the bags they had left with the rest of the equipment, they took out food and drink and it suddenly seemed as if everyone´s brooding mood was gone. O´Neill wasn´t too sure he wanted to cheer up and forget quite so quickly but he couldn´t help it, there was something about these people that just made him.....not worry. In the back of his mind he suspected this wasn´t right, but it was hard to listen to the little voice when he was among these people.  
  
The meal wasn´t much according to the vridga: just some of the cookie- things (a term which Iablaka insisted they stop using), something which looked like water but sure as hell was not, and dried fruit. After eating, both girls went off again, Malinki convinced Iablaka to go with him to fetch the horses, Stari laid back and slept and Kaia and Vozem started telling SG-1 about the battles they´d seen and about the people they fought.  
  
Now, the important thing wasn´t what was said: it was the usual "they are bad, ruthless, evil people" and they were the "good and brave warriors which fought them off" but, the scene that was playing out in front of O´Neills eyes was almost too much for his "must.-keep-some-regulations-from- the-military-mind". Kaia was leaning on Vozem´s shoulder in the most casual way, and Vozem´s arms was around Kaia. All this was going on while they were discussing battles and death and having arguments about the best strategy to lead the vridga.....it was just surreal. They had military minds, they had military costums and they had military rules expect for that whole fraternizing "thing".  
  
After a while the conversation started shifting topics and Daniel suddenly took over the questioning, he asked about their legends, their history, their system of government. Teal´c seemed very interested in their trainig as warriors, he even asked a few questions himself and compared certain techniques with those of the Jaffa. It was in this conversation they learned that there were still some Jaffa left. They were no longer loyal to any Goa´uld, but they kept their own ways and some of them even still carried symbionts. Humans didn´t really trust them, but the Chitkina people had no problem with them, there were even a few that had become Niseos or Padeos and had fought the Sailen. On this point, Teal´c questioned Vozem heavily, and he even got a promise that they may meet some of the Jaffa of this world. He didn´t show it, but inside he was most curious and even, a little excited. He´d never been anywhere else where the Jaffa had been free of their masters and lived in peace before. Daniel continued to question Kaia about her people. She had the patience of a saint, thought O´Neill, she didn´t seem to grow tired of Daniel´s questions and she repeated the answers over and over until they made some sort of sense to the archeologist.  
  
That left Sam and O´Neill. They sat next to each other, in silence. Both of their minds were occupied with the same thought. Their military side couldn´t quite yet come to trust a world that was not ruled by the strictest of rules and yet, a part of them started seeing it their way. It wasn´t fair! Why should feelings be kept in check, under control, always? Feelings were part of being a person, you couldn´t just throw them away! Could you? 


	9. Thinking

It wasn´t even midday yet and they had already been riding for at least six or seven hours. Sam couldn´t believe how long the days were, now that she knew how long they lasted. This time they´d been on the horses for at least four hours, she figured that out by counting seconds, she´d gotten lost somewhere near seven thousand and had started again only to loose track, she started again, lost count again. She figured all in all it had to be at least four hours because she was starting to only be able to concentrate on how uncomfortable she was and she decided four hours was as good a time as any to start doing so.  
  
She shifted slightly, trying somehow to find a place where she didn´t have the horses spine digging into her. All she really succeeded in doing was sliding forward and knocking knees with O´Neill who promptly complained. Sam didn´t what he said exactly, her mind was too busy with trying to make her body move back.  
  
God this is awfull, but no, it´s more like.....weird? Oh come off it! You certainly didn´t put up a fight when you were told you had to travel this way. I know! It was a mistake, I should of.....- Should of what? Said something? You never say something, you just try to gracefully sidestep the issue. I do not! You do to, you know it. At least have the curtesy not to lie to me! I don´t lie to you! Yes you do! You keep me back, the little voice inside your head which tells you to just damn the- Shut up! See, I told you you sidestep, you always have. Yeah.....maybe but this is different. Really, how? Well there´s something about this place, about these people, maybe it´s some sort of chemical in their bloodstream or something which happens to them when they´re "initiated" I mean Kaia did mention how the tears of their masters give them the Gift of Light and that- Would you stop your ramblings! I know what you think! Did you ever consider what it would do to you? No, of course not! How could it do anything to me? Well, you said it yourself, there´s something about this place, about these people, you feel it. Whenever you´re around them, you don´t worry about a thing. Admit it, for a second you thought about how the "fraternizing rules" don´t exist here and about what would happen if you just- Shut up! I told you you sidestep, why? Because there are rules and they have to be followed. You´ve broken tons of rules! The ones you have always respected, I can count with one hand. Well sometimes some rules cannot be broken. You can´t do this, you can´t break some rules and respect some others, it´s not logical, you know it. I know! I can´t, it´s been discussed, it´s a dead issue. Not so dead, everytime you look at them you wonder what would happen if you threw away the rules if you just did as you pleased if you just- Shut up! I can´t think that, it makes no difference in the end, when we go back we go back to our lives, our world, our rules. Yes but right now you´re not on your world, your rules do not exist. You are hiding among these people, pretending to be one of them, you can´t possibly do that and follow all of your USAF rules. I can try! No you can´t! You shouldn´t, why? Who would know? Who would tell? There´d be no going back, I can´t.....For once, you´re right, there would be no going back and if there were, would you want to? Shut up! I can´t discuss this with you, it´s over, the issue is- Dead? You can´t kill your feelings Samantha, you know they´re still there. I´m still here. I may be in the background but you know I´m still here, why do you fight me? I can´t break the rules, we would loose everything.....You certainly gain nothing by doing nothing. Look at yourself, you are here, in a world were fraternizing is allowed, you´re stranded for at least three more 40-hour days, you´re only inches away from- Shut up! Fine, whatever. I´ll shut up, but you can´t fight me forever Samantha, one day you will have to listen to me. One day you´ll see I´m right.....  
  
Oh God! Did she just seriously bump into me? Calm down. Say something......wrong thing! It doesn´t matter, it´s not like.....it just doesn´t matter. So this is certainly boring, nothing but fields and more fields, wait! A shrub! Wow, that was the most exciting thing that´s happened in about.....two hours? Wonder when we´ll pass the next shrub.....What the hell is wrong with her? Can she not just stay still! Probably not, I mean I´m sure as hell not all that comfy. What is it with these people and horses, can´t they walk? There she goes again.....damn it just stop moving would ya! It´s very bothersome you know.....why couldn´t she share someone else´s horse? Why me? Although.....no, no, no, no! Don´t go there. This was a mistake. I should of said something.....anything. Why didn´t I? Oh right.....well.....sharing isn´t the problem! The problem is the fact that these two kids are just so.....why aren´t there rules here!?! If there were we would all be at peace, or at least I would. I mean.....this is just awfull, no.....it´s, weird. No rules here, none and they still seem pretty well balanced, I mean, they don´t seem to have any problems.....no, don´t go there! You can´t, you know that.....okey then.....shrubs, I wonder when we´ll pass the next one.....ah to hell with it! It´s not fair, they handle it fine! But they´re not in the USAF.....well techincally we´re not actually in- No,no,no,no,no,no.....but still, I mean we are sorta stranded here and we are pretending to be of their people, logically, we can´t follow our rules and theirs at the same time, right? Who am I kidding, that´s the stupidest argument I´ve thought up for a while.....it´s just, weird, surreal. Plus, there is that thing that they do to you, what is it anyway? Something´s going on, they affect you somehow I mean I have not felt this relaxed while being stranded on a planet for.....well, never. It all just seems so.....I dunno, but it´s like the more I think about it, the more complicated life is with all the rules in place. Something´s happening here, usually I have some sort of conscience for our careers, for our jobs.....but if I´m completely honest, I don´t see why I should worry, there´s nothing wrong with feeling things, right? It´s a stupid rule anyway! That guy....Laska was right, you function better if your mind is at peace and mine sure as hell is not that way right now! Not with her right here behind me.....did she just move again! For cryin´ out loud! Ok.....shrubs, think of shrubs.....oh god, are we there yet? 


	10. Chilaviek

"They what!?!"  
  
"I am sorry Jack but-"  
  
"No, no. No sorry. You just make sure you go back there and you get us to go home."  
  
"I cannot do that. I am sorry but the council has decided."  
  
"Right.....I don´t think so."  
  
"It does not matter what you think, only what is. And the decision is made."  
  
"What are we supposed to do here? Farm? Raise horses?"  
  
"You will go back to the Loshati, they will give you a place to live."  
  
"Like I said, I. Don´t. Think. So."  
  
"What would you have me do? Would you have me go against thousands of years of tradition and simply ignore a direct order from our council?"  
  
"Well.....it might work."  
  
"I will not do that! I tried, hard. Most of the council agreed, you cannot be allowed to cross to the Gyffin lands, not now. I am sorry, but you are not going home."  
  
"Like hell we´re not."  
  
O´Neill tried to get past Kaia, but she simply stood in his way and pushed him back. The girl was determined, he could see it in his eyes but, so was he. He needed to get home, he wasn´t about to just accept the fact that a group of people he´d never even seen before had decided that they just wouldn´t let them go home. He tried to get past Kaia again, this time Kaia grabbed him by the throat, threw him down to the floor, pressed her knee on his chest and held him there. O´Neill tried to get up, he struggled, wriggled, even hit Kaia but the girl would not let go. He could breath with some difficulty and as he felt his vision start to grow dim Kaia spoke up.  
  
"I cannot let you go, Jack. I understand the decision the council has made is hard to accept but you must. You cannot go home, not with the new situation that has arisen."  
  
Gasping, O´Neill managed two words, "What.....situation.....?"  
  
Kaia loosened her grip and stood up. Sam immediately went to help O´Neill up. He coughed a few times. His chest hurt.  
  
"The Sailen attacked the Borderlands between the Gyffin and the Dragon lands. They took it. It is now Sailen territory and it is the only way to the Stardoor."  
  
"Okey, so how do we get across it?"  
  
"You are a stubborn man, Jack. You cannot cross it. I may not agree with the decision the council has made but I will not risk you and your team being captured by the Sailen, or found out by the humans. We must look to our own lands now. Please understand this. A great army is being assembled, it will meet at midday tomorrow, messengers have been sent. Every Niseos, Padeos, Gyffin, Sabaki and human able to bare arms must be ready for battle. The Sailen people cannot be allowed to keep the Borderlands, it is too close to Nok, to the Land of Light. They are risking our very existence."  
  
O´Neill was still trying to make several parts of his body stop hurting. He looked at Kaia, it wasn´t that he didn´t believe her, it was that he could not believe the bad timing they had.....as usual. Catastrophes always seemed to wait for SG-1 to arrive on a planet to wreak havoc. Finally it was Daniel who spoke up.  
  
"Okey then.....how can we help?"  
  
"You cannot. Unfortunately, the humans cannot be allowed to discover you."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because, the man who leads them now will only see the oportunity to gain more power by having you in his hands. He will take you, promise you to return you home and never will. He is not wholly evil but.....he believes all the Chitkina people should serve under humans, he says that what we do is simply keep men ignorant and powerless, so that we may control everything."  
  
"Okey.....so we pretend to be of your people."  
  
"It is not that simple, Daniel. Humans may be mostly ignorant about our ways but they will still know what you are and if we are asked directly, we will not be able to lie. No, you must not be discovered by men."  
  
"Is that why they´re not letting us go?"  
  
"In part yes but, there is more. Some of the council believed that if you were to go to the humans of this world you might be persuaded to see things their way and you may be tempted to help them. I have learned much of your world by seeing it in you and by speaking with you, if you were to ally with the humans, then we would have no choice but to fight them or serve them and we.....serve no man."  
  
"What if we promise we won´t help them?"  
  
"Your intentions are not evil, I know this but, even if you did not help them, they would still use the fact that we hid you for three days as an excuse. Men are growing strong and that is no crime. It is the man that is making them strong that is the problem. He is not to be trusted."  
  
"Well then, there has to be another way. We can´t go, we can´t help, we can´t stay here. There must be another way."  
  
"I do not know," Kaia looked down at the ground. O´Neill knew she was keeping something from them, "there is always another way. That is what hope is. One of the members of the council agrees with you. You must go home. He wishes to meet with you."  
  
"Is he gonna be able to get us home?"  
  
"Possibly. He is wise even though he is young, he will at the very least, try to help."  
  
"Okey then. Take us to....."  
  
"Chilaviek. His name is Chilaviek."  
  
SG-1 stepped out of the room they´d been put in as soon as they arrived. It was inside a large cave which had three main halls and several different rooms which had been made, according to Kaia, centuries before. Everything was cold and damp but no one seemed to mind. Torches lit the way but it was still very dark. SG-1 stumbled several times on the slippery and uneven floor but no one else did. Daniel suspected it was because, aside from their psychic abilities, the Padeos possesed something like hightened senses, they seemed to hear, smell and see better.  
  
They had arrived a few hours after the sun had risen. They were all very tired. SG-1 had discovered that the group they were traveling with needed no more than four hours in a whole day and they had been unwilling to stop for the strangers. Iablaka was to blame for this, she had pushed so that they kept on going. During the night, it had started to rain, pour really and once they were soaked and freezing, it started to hail. They hadn´t stopped. Finally, numb, soaked, tired, hungry and in very foul moods, they had arrived at a village. The vrigda was received by several cheering people but the festivities didn´t last long for SG-1. They were quickly led into the cave, into a cold room and told to stay in there while Kaia went to speak to the council. They weren´t even given a change of clothes. It had been at least four or five more hours before Kaia came back. She had changed and she brought dry clothes for SG-1, identical to the ones they were already wearing. When they had finally changed, Kaia told them of the council´s decision. O´Neill was pissed.  
  
Now, they were walking down a long hall, it seemed to lead deeper into the caves. Only Kaia went with them, Vozem has chosen to stay outside: Niseos did not like caves. Alma and Koshka had run off to the tree line, by themselves. Malinki had disappeared somewhere, presumably with Iablaka. They walked for several minutes, until they came to the end of the hall. A great door stood there, it was made of think, heavy wood. Kaia didn´t knock, she simply pushed it open. It creaked and cracked and let out a wonderful smell: food.  
  
The place were they where was in fact something like the kitchen. There were dozens of shelves, all filled with food and containers. In the very center there was a roaring fire and several pots hanging over it. There was something like a natural rock formation which took the shape of a table, on it sat several glasses and barrels of liquid. Kaia served each of them some of that and offered them food. SG-1 took some of it, but hungry as they were, their first priority was to meet this Chilaviek.  
  
"So where is he?"  
  
"He will be here soon."  
  
"So, he´s a member of this council, right?"  
  
"Yes. He is one of the most important members of the council in fact. He is also a great master."  
  
"Wait.....he´s a dragon?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"We´re actually meeting a.....dragon?"  
  
"Yes and no. He is one but he will not appear as one. He will take the form of a man, as he always does when he is in the company of men."  
  
At this moment, Daniel started believing that maybe there weren´t actually any mythical creatures on this planet. Maybe they were just humans and the people around them believed they were Dragons or Loshati or whatever other kind they had on the planet. He had to admit he was a bit dissapointed.  
  
"You are wrong, Daniel. They are not humans. They are our masters."  
  
"Yes of course I simply.....on Earth we have several cultures which believe their leaders to be descendant from creatures such as dragons I only thought-"  
  
"You think because we will not show you our true selves then we are humans?"  
  
Everyone turned. There, at the door, stood a man. He was somewhere around 35, he had dark hair and the most piercing green eyes they´d ever seen. He walked gracefully and slowly. He smiled but not out of kindness, it was as if he understood some great joke and the rest of the room did not. Kaia immediately bowed down, palms up. Chilaviek smiled.  
  
"Get up Kaia. You knew me for so long while I was so young and foolish, you need not be so formal now." Kaia rose, Chilaviek closed the distance between them and hugged her. "I was worried about you when I heard what happened at the Stardoor. You are reckless Kaia, luck must always be by your side."  
  
Kaia smiled. O´Neill was in no mood.  
  
"Sorry to interrupt this lovely reunion but....."  
  
"Yes, you are Jack." Chilaviek locked eyes with Kaia, something happened, a light shone on both of them and suddenly, Chilaviek blinked and the light was gone. "I have learned much about you from Kaia. You are a good man but impatient. Patience is of great value to us and is of much use to most people."  
  
"Right.....well patience isn´t really what I´m worried about right now."  
  
"I understand. You wish to go home, correct?"  
  
"Ah.....yeah."  
  
"You cannot. The council has decided. Kaia already informed you of this."  
  
"Yes she did but it´s unacceptable. I love what you´ve done with the place and all but, we can´t stay here."  
  
"I agree. You do not belong here."  
  
"So....."  
  
"We must find another choice. You will not be allowed to leave this place on your own. You cannot fight with us in the war, you are humans. The choice is then simple."  
  
"Well would ya mind explaining it to me anyway?"  
  
"Very well. The only way you will go home is if you manage to cross the Borderlands, which is impossible." O´Neill was still waiting for an explanation, "The Borderlands must be reconquered. They will. Already a greater army than what the Sailen peole brought to these lands is assembled at this very village. Tomorrow, more will come. Even the humans have joined our army. If you manage to survive, then you may go home."  
  
O´Neill thought this was a good plan. They were, after all, military officers (mostly) and even Daniel had seen his good share of war and death. But he couldn´t help it, he was missing something. Sam took the liberty of pointing out what it was.  
  
"I thought you said we couldn´t figh because we´re humans."  
  
There it was! The perfect hole which shot the plan appart. Chilaviek smiled and poured himself a glass of the liquid that had been served to them but that they had, so far, ignored.  
  
"That is true. You cannot fight as humans."  
  
It dawned on them. All of them. There were simply no words-  
  
"Like hell! You are not turning us into anything."  
  
Apparently, there were words.  
  
After that, Chilaviek and O´Neill launched into a heated argument which ended in several refernces to Chilavek´s mother and several words which O´Neill couldn´t understand, but could guess what they meant. In the end, it was of no use. There were only three choices: to stay, to try to leave and be captured and locked up or, to allow Chilaviek and Kaia to help them.  
  
"Okey say that, for the sake of the argument, we allow you to......you know. What happens when we go home?"  
  
"I have thought about this Jack. I am much, much older than I look now and much wiser than any human I have yet to meet.....the effects will be either temporary or not as strong as in a normal Padeos because, you will not undergo the normal ritual."  
  
"You mean they could be temporary or not? Hell no!"  
  
"It is your only other choice! You will undergo the ritual, Kaia will perform it. Bolshoi´s spirit lives withing her but not completely. The blessing will not be as strong and so.....it may be either temporary or not as strong as normal."  
  
"See, that´s the problem right there. You don´t understand what you´re doing and we´re not just going to sit by while we´re turned into guinea pigs for your little-"  
  
"No you do not understand, human! It is the only way. Once you are of us, you may go to the field of battle. If you win honor then you may go freely, if you do not, then you will still be one of our people and the right to go to the Gyffin lands will not be denied to you! The Gyffins will decide wether they let you go through the Stardoor or not but, you will be much closer to getting home than by staying here."  
  
O´Neill ran a hand through his hair. He turned to his team. They were all there, waiting for him to make the decision. It was his call but he still looked to them for their opinion.  
  
"Carter?"  
  
"Sir, I think it´s a longshot but.....it does seem to be the only way. I don´t quite feel up to taking up an entire people if we can do this."  
  
"Yeah and besides.....even if the effects aren´t temporary or are lessened, how bad could it be? I mean, they say they can control the whole "mind reading" ability so we can learn plus, we could be immune to any Goa´uld implantation so.....it´s not that bad, is it? I mean, think about it, we do this and we could hold the key to a –natural defence- against the Goa´uld."  
  
"Indeed. I do believe DanielJackson has a point. This could be most profitable to our cause."  
  
O´Neill hated when his team thought like that. He liked his humanity, he wasn´t too sure about giving it up just to please a bunch of wise-ass people. He turned back to Chilaviek.  
  
"Allright, what do we have to do."  
  
"You have to do nothing or.....almost nothing. You must change your clothes, eat well and.....wash. You smell of human." Chilaviek walked away. Kaia smirked but O´Neill simply could not hold his tongue.  
  
"Hey! You don´t exactly smell like roses either!"  
  
Chilaviek stopped. Turned. Came back.  
  
"I am not human."  
  
He raised his arms and began to change. His clothes blenden into his skin, his eyes grew in size and changed shape. His teeth became pointy and stuck out beneath his lips. His back expanded, wings came from it. His legs hunched and his arms became shorter and thicker. With a great growl, claws substituted his fingernails and small horns grew on the side of his head. His hair turned into scales. He took a deep breath.  
  
Chilaviek now stood in his true form, something he´d never done in front of any human. He was about four times the size of a horse, he had great wings which he streched out and then folded back, resting them on his side. His skin had turned to skales and they were a color between brown and green. He got down on the floor, resting his head on the cool stone. Never looking away from O´Neill who, for once, was truly without words.  
  
The rest of SG-1 fared no better. Daniel managed to mutter an "Oh my....." but no one else made a sound. Teal´c was surprised, he had heard legends, stories about the evil beings which had tried to take the power of the Goa´uld once. He had said nothing to his teamates, but he suspected those legends had come from this place. After a few minutes Chilaviek took a deep breath. The air coming from his nostrils was foul, but not as much as the sent that reeked out when he spoke, which was soon after that.  
  
"You must do as you are asked. Do not question it, it all has a reason for being. Kaia has agreed to take you into her house, you will be her and Bolshoi´s kin. The Jaffa cannot go through this but, Kaia has agreed to accept him as kin nontheless. It is her right as the only surviving member of the House of Bolshoi and as a leader of the Stewards of the Padeos. None of this will be challenged. The ritual must be perfomed today, in the afternoon. You will most likely sleep all through the night and when you wake, there will be pain. All the memories and knowledge of Kaia, Bolshoi and all the people around you will be made clear in your mind. All the knowledge of the Padeos will be there. You must search your minds and your hearts. Remember this. You must search for the way to control it or you will go mad. I will see you when you arrive at the encampment." He stood on all fours. He extended his wings and bowed his head, "May the Fortunes of Fate, the Wisdom of Knowledge and the Strength of Courage go with you."  
  
Kaia bowed down as well, but no one noticed. The dragon now turned and walked out, opening both doors with little effort. The doors creaked shut behind him. O´Neill was shocked. Sam, Daniel and Teal´c had begun to wonder: what had they just gotten themselves into?  
  
Kaia stood in front of them, took their glasses and set them back on the stone table. That shook them out of their shock a little. She went to the door and opened it.  
  
"Come. You must begin to prepare for the ritual. We have little time."  
  
SG-1 came in silence. Kaia only heard O´Neill mutter something under his breath before he walked into the hall.  
  
"That was cool." 


	11. Padeos

Kaia took them to another room, the one where they would be staying until the following day. It was quite different than the one they´d been stuck in before. This one was large, and had two floors. It also wasn´t as damp as the rest of the caves, something which was made clear when they noticed that there was actually another corridor, which led outside. The air in there was cool and fresh and everything was well lit by some sort of glowing stones which Kaia called the Jewels of Dragons but didn´t explain what they were. At this point, Sam lost all track of what was being said, she stared at the stones, touched them, examined them. She was completely lost in the science behind what she was looking at.  
  
The rest of the team got what O´Neill believed was no less than the "grand tour". They were shone several beds, all of them with a great cloth on top of them, depicting different colored dragons, a horse and something which looked like a dog and a cat. This was the place where Kaia´s vrigda slept. There were also several shelves, on which there was food, drink and clothes. On the second level, there were six other beds, all of them unoccupied. Daniel asked Kaia about the place and what everything meant, and she patiently explained how this metal dragon represented Bolshoi and how that stone dragon was the protector of all Padeos and that they prayed to it every morning and every night whenever they were there. O´Neill lost track of it all, he went to stand by Sam, watching her. She was completely focused on the glowing "rock-thingy", he rolled his eyes but did nothing else. All of the feelings and arguments that had rolled around his head while he´d been inches appart from her for two days still refused to be silent. He didn´t trust his mouth to speak, he was afraid of what would come out of it. Finally, both of them were taken out of their own personal ramblings as Teal´c called them over.  
  
Kaia handed them completely new clothes, this time they bore the blue-green dragon Kaia bore. She also handed them another pair of pants, black pants which seemed a little too tight, a pair of black boots which reached up to their knees and several weapons: a long sword, a short sword, two daggers, some of the string she carried (which she briefly explained did great damage to the Sailen if they came into contact with it, because it was made from the hair of the Loshati and the powdered scales of a Dragon) and two brightly colored bracelets which were knitted. One of then had three colors, red, blue and green; this one was so they would be identified as Padeos. The other one had crosses knotted into the pattern, blue crosses, on top of yellow, green, orange and red; this one made them part of Kaia´s vrigda and one rank higher than the common foot soldier. She finally handed them each a small metal pendant, it had a dragon coiled around what looked like a tooth. It was for luck and courage in battle, but also to show that the house they belonged to was a great house, and that would make them worthy of respect. It wasn´t until this moment that SG-1 noticed that Kaia did in fact wear all these things, and more. She, at the very least, wore two more bracelets, a black one (to show her master had died, honorably, and that she was now the head of Bolshoi´s household) and a grey and dark blue one, which proved her to be a Leader of the Stewards (which meant she had the spirit of a dragon within her, quite literally, half of Bolshoi´s soul had blended with her own in the moment of his death, giving her even more power as a Padeos).  
  
They weren´t given a lot of time to absorb or think about what they were doing. Kaia led them through another corridor, one that was hidden under the stairs. At the end of it there was a light, it was the reflection of the sun on water. It wasn´t a very large room but it was a curious one: completely round and, at top, an opening which looked up into the sky and lit the room; there was a stone slab which seemed to be the edge of a small waterfall, if you stood in the middle of the room, the water would fall directly on top of you. Kaia climbed up to the ledge, carefully, and dropped some glowing stones into the small puddle which formed there. They began to glow red. Kaia went back down and explained what the place was. It was unbelievable, but they were actually standing in some sort of shower. The glowing stones were to heat the water, something which was confirmed by O´Neill as he put his hand into the waterfall: the water was warm. Kaia smiled at them and told them to wash. Before leaving, she handed them two bowls with some sort of oil inside of them. She quickly explained: one was like soap, the other was to soak the bracelets in. She didn´t explain why, she simply left.  
  
It was an awkward moment and it took them several minutes to figure out how they were going to go about washing up. Finally, it was decided that Sam would go first, then Teal´c, then O´Neill and finally, Daniel. The men left and Sam was left with a lingering thought: there were no towels to dry off with.  
  
To Kaia it seemed like the strangers were taking forever to wash up. She was lying in bed, fidgeting with her dragon pendant. She was thinking about what she was about to do. It wasn´t right, but it was the only way. She wasn´t actually worried about the strangers, she knew they would be able to handle it, she was worried about what this meant for her people. Once it was discovered that she had turned humans into Padeos out of a whim, the council would be outraged and the humans.....they would probably demand that they be made Padeos as well. Up to that moment, they had relied on the fact that the children who would one day be Padeos were different in some way and in fact, they were, but that did not mean that any human could not share the power of the Padeos. Kaia thought about this. According to the legends, the Dragons and the Loshati blessed ten humans and from them all Padeos come; the Gyffins and Sabaki took human form and went to live with humans, so that they are all born as humans but are in fact Creatures of the Light. She sighed. She knew she could turn these humans into Padeos, she knew it but it went against everything that the legend spoke off. As if she were not alone, she suddenly heard a voice, clear, deep and comforting, "You cannot trust truth to legend and myth, child.". She smiled. Bloshoi had said that to her many, many times. He was right. The legend may tell one thing but in the end, it is a legend, and not the complete truth. She was still thinking when the strangers finally came out.  
  
Kaia looked at them carefully. They looked just like four more Padeos, with the exception of the Jaffa, he looked a little out of place, but nothing extraordinary. She smiled, hoping it came off as a confident one, but she knew it did not. For the first time since she´d been forced to take Iablaka under her care, she wasn´t sure if what she was doing was right or wrong, good or evil. She was nervous. She looked at their faces again. They did not belong in her world. She could feel it. They were really desperate to go home, even Daniel didn't like the idea of being stranded there, fascinating as the planet was. It was as if something too big and too tight for them were filling them up inside. They felt they would explode, they could do nothing about it. Kaia knew they felt it, in their fingertips, in their eyes. It was as if something thick and viscous were filling them up, substituting every other feeling and sensation, making them leak out with every breath, with every heartbeat. Kaia´s resolve hardened in that moment, she didn´t care what the social consecuences of her actions were, the right thing to do was to help these strangers go home. She came up to them.  
  
"It is time."  
  
She turned to the shelves and brought something back for them. It was food. She insisted that they eat everything she gave them and drink the last drop of a greenish liquid that didn´t taste too good. When they were done, they all felt rather sleepy, but Kaia insisted that they go outside.  
  
They walked for a while, SG-1 never could figure out for how long. The went past the treeline, onto the very edge of a cliff. Kaia told them to stop there. They were all practically asleep on their feet, even Teal´c seemed out of it. Kaia made the Jaffa stand appart and allowed him to sit down, at which point he stared into space without moving. The other three didn´t have the luxory of sitting down, they all felt as if they would faint from being so tired.  
  
"Stand together.", Kaia said. They did so, but Kaia wasn´t pleased, "Closer. You must.", they moved again. O´Neill bumped into Sam unceremoniously and tried to apologize, but he was just so out of it.....they were standing now, shoulder to shoulder, Sam in the middle and O´Neill to her right, Daniel to her left. She was glad for it, she felt she could lean a little on each man and that would help hold herself up. Her vision was getting blurry.  
  
Kaia wasted no time anymore. She stood in front of them, "Now, you will feel no pain. When it is over you will collapse and will remain unconscious for, at least, the remainder of the afternoon and most of the night. Listen to me!", she slapped Daniel awake, "The pain you will feel when you wake will be because you will be able to feel everything and everyone close to you. You must focus on something, something which can occupy your mind entirely, once the pain begins to receed, look inside yourselves. All the knowledge and power to control your mind is there, you only need to look for it. When all is well again, you will feel very hungry. I will bring you food, after that, we will set out to the encampment were, if Life and Time allow, you will be able to have a few hours of training before the battle.", she took a step back and sat down, cross-legged. She closed her eyes, when she opened them, they were glowing.  
  
The dragon once again took form. It stood before the three members of SG-1, regarding them, searching their minds. It seemed like an eternity before it moved. Teal´c was still staring into space, and Daniel, Sam and O´Neill were to busy trying to stay on their feet to be awed at what stood before them. Bolshoi´s spirit looked almost as if it were real, there was something in the texture of the skin which was slightly off. His breath, amazingly enough, was just as foul as it had been in life, and if O´Neill had had the strength, he would of even noticed that when he spoke, he spat. Bolshoi said something no one understood, it sounded more like mumbling than anything else. Suddenly, it happened.  
  
Bloshoi rose on his two hind legs. He streched his wings. He screamed, it was a deafening sound. He laid both his hands on the shoulders of the men, but that did not stop Sam from feeling as if she were being weighed down as well. They tried to stay up. Eventually, they were all down on their knees. Something happened around them. Some sort of mist seemed to surround them, it was so thick they could no longer see the person next to them. They stopped feeling tired, their minds were becoming clear. O´Neill was aware of a little bug climbing up a tree about three hundred yards away; Sam knew there was a fish stuck in a hole in the river at the bottom of the cliff; Daniel knew it was raining in the Loshati encampment. The weight of the dragon´s arms began to seem less and they were finally able so simply shake them off. At this moment, Bolshoi bowed to them. They fell to the ground.  
  
Kaia opened her eyes suddenly. She was out of breath and sweating. Her vision was blurry. She only had enough time to call out to the Jaffa before she too, lost consciousness.  
  
Teal´c had been thinking about something. Or at least he assumed so. It wasn´t very often that he had so difficult a time focusing on any one thing. He was vaguely aware of a prescence nearby, he thought there was a sound no louder than a whisper when Bolshoi screamed. When Kaia called out his name, he was able to shake himself back to the real world. His friends were lying in a heap on top of each other, Kaia lay in front of them. Upon closer examination, he noticed that they simply seemed to be sleeping. He looked around, no one else was there. He knew what he had to do. He carried each of the sleeping forms back to Kaia´s room. It took him a long time to manage, but he eventually did. The ones who saw him stepped out of his way, though he didn´t know if it was out of fear or respect. He brought Kaia in last. When he got back to the cave, Vozem and Stari were already there. They took one look at Kaia and breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently, clarified Stari, whatever it was the girl had just done could of killed her. She had been lucky. 


	12. Occuping one´s mind

Out of all the things that could hurt, being aware of grass being stepped on is one of the most painfull. Grass doesn´t crunch and wither under heavy weight, it simply bends over, again and again, under the weight of any number of things. In this case, it was the fat ass of an old Padeos, eating a meal just outside the cave. The grass couldn´t breath properly, and some of the blades were bent under so much weight they were about to snap. It hurt like hell.  
  
There was something else though. The wind. It was stuck in a dark room, banging agains the walls in a circular fashion. Amazingly enough, the rock being hit by the cold, harsh wind hurt more than the grass. If O´Neill had been a little more awake, he would of stopped to wonder what the hell was wrong with him. As it was, he was not, and so all he felt was pain, and he knew exactly from where every single bit of it was coming from.  
  
The grass. The wind. The rock. A bird. A bug. A fish. Fire. Water. Stone. A young Padeos girl was crying in fear. An older Niseos was mourning the death of his most recent master. The Sailen were worried. They would die. They were scared of death. A young boy not too far away tripped on his own to feet and tumbled down a cliff. He broke his arm.  
  
O´Neill cried out in pain. He opened his eyes and it was worse. Now he could see the grass, the wind, the boy, Death. He rolled on his side. He could do nothing else. He fell of the bed. Now, his own pain was added to the whole array of images. He wriggled, much like a fish which had just been taken out of a pond a day´s journey away. The fish would make excelent dinner to an old woman. O´Neill felt sorry for the fish. He managed to sit up, although he didn´t know how. He leaned against something. The other bed. Big mistake.  
  
Sam was there. In a second and all at the same time he saw everything. When she was a girl. When her mother died. When she first joined the Air Force. Her plants. The fascination with physics. He couldn´t bare it. It was all painfull, no matter what it was: happy, sad, angrering. It all hurt. He knew at once exactly what she thought of him, and yet he forgot it too. An image opened up in his head. A girl. Cassandra? No. Another wave of pain. Kaia! It was Kaia! He remembered. Occupy his mind. He had to. He didn´t know if he could. There was suddenly something else. Wormhole. Bright. The first time Sam had gone through. He´d pushed her. She thought he was funny. She knew he pretended to me more stupid than what he actually was. O´Neill had no time to even ponder what he was doing. Sam´s memories were more than enough for everything else to dim. He focused on them. Second by second. He didn´t care what they were. He didn´t care how many numbers and formula went into his head. He understood it. He forgot. He remembered. Or was it she who remembered? He suddenly found himself breathing normally. He remembered something else. Something which was his own. Everything was inside of him. He closed his eyes, there it was. His mind went quiet.  
  
While grass is entitled to feel pain and all, it really doesn´t compare to the beating a spoon takes. Up. Down. Up. Down. Into the bowl, out of the bowl. Teeth digging into it. Scrapping. Scrapping. Being thrown down, picked up. Banged against a tree. Put into a fire. Hot. Bang. Scrape. The worse part was that the spoon itself didn´t feel anything, but Daniel did. He opened his eyes and he saw a fly on the wall. It was cold. So cold. It shivered. It´s wings hurt. Daniel couldn´t breath. He couldn´t. He was underwater. No. A shoe. A shoe underwater. A young Niseos lost it. Soaked. Cold. Fly. Wall. Hard. Scrape. Hot. Spoon. Food. Drink. Niseos? Kaia! Cultures. He couldn´t breath. He couldn´t breath because chairs don´t breath. Hauled up. Hauled down. Sat on. Stood on. Dragged across the floor. No air. No air. Because he was the air. No, he wasn´t. Air. Room. Circle. Shower? Kaia! Breath. Breath. Breath. No good. Kaia! Girl! Strange! Different. Cutlures! He had it. He saw it. Symbols. Letters. Signs. Notebooks. Paper. Rip. Torn. He was. Torn. His wife. SG-1. He felt it again. Spoon being scraped, chair being sat on. The fly would die. It did not want to die. No! Daniel didn´t want the fly to die. The fly didn´t care. It was already dead. Fly. Insect. Insect. Beetle. Egypt. Stargate. SGC. Wormhole. Kaia! Told them to remember. Occupy their minds! Nothing came. Nothing came. Pain. It really, really hurt to be the spoon, the chair, the fly, the shoe, the bowl, the cold, air. A light. A flash. Wormhole. Sam. Rambling. O´Neill. Confused. Not really. His wife. His work. Symbols. Breath! He could! Deep breath. He remebered now. He felt the fly, he wasn´t the fly. His head. In his head. It was there. Quiet. Rest. Breath. At last.  
  
O´Neill was.....hungry. Starving. He opened his eyes. The room was in shadows. Everything was silent. It was the middle of the night. He knew it. Daniel was asleep. He knew that too. Teal´c was outside, with Stari, discussing the ways of the Jaffa on this planet. He was pleased so far. O´Neill shook his head. He didn´t want Teal´c´s thoughts in his mind. He was sitting down on the floor. How the hell-? It didn´t matter. He got up. He suddenly didn´t really mind being barefoot anymore. He felt the cool rock, he was comforted by it. He shook his head. That wasn´t his feeling, that wasn´t his idea. He felt something else.....it was sharp, painfull. He panicked when he realized what it was: Sam couldn´t breath. She just couldn´t.  
  
He turned around. She was lying face up. Eyes wide open but unfocused. She couldn´t breath. She couldn´t even gasp for air. He shook her arm. She was in pain. Everything was suddenly in his head, but it was only for a second. Something else inside of him kept the pain away. He shook her harder.  
  
"Carter!"  
  
He felt it. She saw it all. A dead fly on the wall. A bitter taste. A Sailen soldier was being tortured for failing. A knife in the chest. The blade came out the back. Sam was panicking. She couldn´t think of anything else. She was trapped. She was being tortured in her head. She still couldn´t breath. O´Neill started to panick himself. He shook her harder. He didn´t know what else to do.  
  
"Carter!"  
  
Nothing. She still tried to breath but couldn´t. He held her face in both his hands and looked her in the eye.  
  
"Sam!"  
  
Something stirred. She was inside of his head. She saw everything. Something in O´Neill tried to stop it but it couldn´t. She saw. His son. When he´d first met Daniel. What exact thought had gone through his head when he´d first seen her. Her eyes suddenly focused. O´Neill was still panicking. She couldn´t die. He couldn´t let it happen. What had they done to themselves? His breath was short. Suddenly, she breathed. She took in air and let it out. She calmned down. Something lingered between both of them. O´Neill felt it and he knew she did too. He couldn´t let her go. He saw confusion and a whole bunch of other emotions go through Sam´s eyes before she finally gave up. She closed her eyes. She went to sleep. O´Neill got up. Slowly. He knew. She knew. They both knew everything. He sat back down on the floor. This was not good. He looked at her. All the knowledge of everything they felt. They´d shared that. He wouldn´t forget it. She wouldn´t either. How was he supposed to act now? How was she? He ran a hand through his hair. This was not good. 


	13. Consecuences

Sam opened her eyes. She was hungry. She sat up and found O´Neill on the floor. He was looking down. For a brief moment she was confused, then worried, then she remembered. He´d helped her. He´d saved her life. She wanted to say something but she couldn´t. O´Neill´s voice came, quiet and monotone.  
  
"It was nothing Carter."  
  
She put her feet down on the ground. Finding it strange that she was suddenly so comfortable being barefoot.  
  
"Sir....."  
  
"Carter.....", he looked at her, but only for a second. "Don´t."  
  
"But sir....."  
  
"Damn it Carter-"  
  
Behind Sam, Daniel stirred. She immediately turned to face him. It was really weird. She knew that Daniel was wondering if there would be any Jello left in the mess.....she shook her head and turned back to O´Neill. This time, he looked straight at her. He was confused and worried. Sam understood that but she just didn´t work like he did, she wasn´t about to bury what had just happened between them She was about to say so when Daniel spoke up.  
  
"Am I interrupting anything?.....Guys?"  
  
"We´re fine, Daniel." Answered Sam.  
  
Daniel knew they were lying. He could sense it. He knew it was only a matter of digging a little deeper and he would know everything but, something like a voice told him to stop. It wasn´t right. He sighed. He didn´t really need to know anyways, he could probably guess what the problem was. There was only ever one problem between those two. He put his feet down and got up. He couldn´t help it. He felt good and hungry. Very. He was about to suggest they go out to find Kaia when someone came in. It was Iablaka.  
  
Iablaka had been very angry when she learned what Kaia was trying to do. If she was truly honest with herself, she wasn´t sure if she was angry because she thought it was a stupid idea, or because Kaia hadn´t asked for her help. How dare she! Iablaka carried half the spirit of Bolshoi as well! It wasn´t until she´d learned it had almost killed Kaia that she began to change her mind, and her feelings. At first, she´d been suspicious of the strangers, then she´d grown to dislike them. They were being treated like guests, they were nothing but humans from another planet! Iablaka had to admit now she had been a little harsh. The truth was, she was angry at Kaia. She´d denied her the right of passage to the Padeos, even though Iablaka felt ready. Kaia had simply shaken her head and told her no. She wasn´t ready to be Padeos. She was too young and she was to proud. Iablaka was still annoyed at it. Kaia was just another human! It shouldn´t be up to her to decide! The young girl knew all of her arguments were useless, she would never have the courage to confront Kaia outloud and besides, Kaia was the head of the house of Bolshoi and even though Iablaka would never be part of that house, she had to respect the judgment of her teacher.  
  
She went up the stairs now. The tension in the room was visible. Iablaka tasted it in the back of her throat. Bitter. Angry. With one look she knew from where it was coming. She felt sorry for these humans. They had to keep a lot of feelings in check. Everyone knew about it. It wasn´t as if Jack and Sam had hid their feelings in their heads. Now Iablaka sensed something else.....there had been a conection. Iablaka knew from experience it was something you did not get over quickly. A similar thing had happened to her and Malinki. She´d almost died once, he´d helped her, he was beside her when she woke up. He saved her life and in the second she opened her eyes and found his, they were both in each other´s heads. She smiled weakly at the strangers and asked them, politely, to come with her.  
  
-Strangers- thought Iablaka. They no longer were, not really. They followed her silently, but their heads were rushing. They were still not very accostumed to being aware that those around them could sense their every thought, and that if they wanted to keep something from being public knowledge, they should say so, even in their heads. Iablaka took the liberty of looking inside of them for a bit. They were all confused, fascinated and worried at the same time. She recognized many of the feelings, having felt them herself when she first came under Kaia. It suddenly hit her, they were not all that different from each other. Iablaka forced herself to try to understand them, even the Jaffa, especially now that they were Kaia´s kin. Iablaka shuddered a little at that, she was willing to accept the strangers and all but, because Iablaka was not Padeos and did not have a house, these four strangers had just become her superiors. She wondered how long it would take for them to remember that. She fought with herself, she should tell them, but she wasn´t ready to follow behind them, not yet. Kaia trusted them completely, Iablaka still preferred to doubt their skills in battle. Iabalaka stopped thinking. She felt a prescence. It was the woman, Samantha. She quieted her mind and blocked the intruder. They kept walking until they came outside. Everyone else was already there.  
  
It was a shock to see Kaia. She looked a pale blue and couldn´t breath properly. She sometimes coughed and would pass out. Vozem was there, he didn´t resent the strangers for bringing this upon the woman he loved but, he did very much doubt they understood what she´d risked for them. Stari was there, still speaking with Teal´c. They had found they had much in common. Malinki was sitting opposite Vozem, but he rose and turned as soon as Iablaka came out. He smiled at her. She smiled back. Alma and Koshka were uncharacteristically quiet. Something weighed heavily in their minds. Daniel could sense it.  
  
It was a strange feeling. Being able to read minds and all. It was all made weirder by the fact that there were so many rules surrounding this ability. He hadn´t really understood before now, but now he knew: it was very dangerous to simply go about reading people´s minds. He was most shocked by Kaia though. It wasn´t just that she looked bad, he could feel exactly how she felt. All of a sudden he didn´t feel so hungry anymore.  
  
Food was offered in any case. In fact, it was forced onto the strangers. Even Teal´c. He had undergone no transformation but, his sedation had been necessary, other wise the dragon´s spirit would of sensed him as a threat and killed him. Kaia didn´t explain why she´d wanted Teal´c there, neither did Stari nor Iablaka. O´Neill sensed it had something to do with the fact that the rest of SG-1 had been comforted by the Jaffa´s prescence, even if he had been just as drugged as they were.  
  
They ate in silence. Taking in everything. It was incredible, they were aware of so many things all at the same time. The strangest part was knowing both the present and past, it was sometimes hard to distinguish between the two of them. Yet, as the night wore slowly away, they all began to get a handle on their new abilities. By the time the sun came up, Kaia only looked a little pale, and the other three felt confident enough that they could keep, at the very least, their newfound psychic abilities in check. When the first ray of sun hit the Padeos´ lands, a great horn sounded. No one needed to ask what it was. It was time to move out, by midday, they would be engaging the enemy.  
  
Kaia awoke and smiled. She blinked a few times and streched. She looked at Sam, Daniel and O´Neill. She was glad they were alive and well. They all felt it. Her eyes rested on O´Neill a second longer than the rest. In his head, she warned him of locking down his feelings, of trying to deny them. O´Neill turned his mind into a blank, but still, Kaia´s voice lingered, it was there for a few mintues, then it was gone. He was alone again, in his head. He much preffered it that way.  
  
They marched out soon after that. The encampment was four hours away and Kaia insisted the four new members of her vrigda receive, at least, basic training on how to use the weapons. It wasn´t because they would not know how to do it, it was simply because their bodies were not used to it, their minds would leave them behind and that could be a deadly mistake, especially if the enemy was the Sailen people. All the other people outside the vrigda stared at the strangers, who were now their people too. Everyone knew what Kaia had done, some of them approved, others didn´t know what to think. It was surprising how few actually opposed what Kaia had done. SG-1 passed next to the council. They suddenly, instinctively, knew what each of them was, their houses and their histories. The dragons accepted them as part of their people, it was Kaia they feared. She posed a threat to them. She had grown powerfull and they feared her radical ideas would break the fragile relationship they now had with the humans. 


	14. Arulo

Arulo had been born into great luxory. His father had been a powerfull man. Warrior. Landlord. Trader. By the time Arulo, the youngest of four sons, was born, the man held more lands than that of all the Chitkina combined. Now, it was his youngest´s turn.  
  
His three brothers had all been killed in battle agains the Sailen people. Something which Arulo never forgot and never forgave of the Chitkina. They were supposed to protect humans, ensure their survival and yet, they had allowed the heirs to a mighty empire die. Aurolo hated them for this and now, he truly had come to believe the Chitkina were standing in men´s way. They were ment to protect them, serve them, not to hold them back. What sickened the young man the most were the Padeos and Niseos. Humans, taken when they were little more than babies and raised by creatures. It was unnatural. So were their abilities. Yet, for the moment, the humans still needed the Chitkina´s armies, but not for long. Arulo stood at the edge of the encampment. He smiled. The council of the Dragons had once again agreed to his terms. This was one more reason he believed it was in these creature´s nature to serve: they never looked to their people, they simply led them in such a way as they did not disturb men. After the battle, the council would announce the complete independence of the World of Men and, offer their services to Arulo. He laughed. These creatures were truly stupid! They would rather serve than break their oath to protect. Another sign of weakness, in the mind of Arulo.  
  
His attention was drawn away as the Padeos arrived. He glared at them. The vrigda marched in front. Ten of them. He only had eyes to follow one though. He ran his tongue across his teeth. Kaia. He had to admit. He was attracted to her. It was nothing like love. He could never love anything that was not human but, there was something about her. She led the vrigda, she, in fact, led all the vrigda. It was not an official position, but it was true nonetheless. Most Padeos seemed to follow her lead. He watched her, carefully. When her services were his, she would not be able to refuse him. He didn´t want much. She could go on to have a relationship with the Niseos, Vozem. All Arulo really wanted was to have her. He laughed once more as he pictured it. It was all made the better because he´d been warned so much of that one. She was powerful, she was one with one of the most powerful dragons to have ever existed and she did not believe in serving anyone. She had no master. Arulo´s fantasies changed. He now began to wonder how exactly Kaia planned to oppose him, because he knew she would. It was inevitable. Two years ago, when they´d first met, she´d made it clear. She did not trust him. She was not so stupid. He noticed that there were four other members in her vridga. One of the was Jaffa, bearing a symbol that no other Jaffa bore. He looked closer. There was something strange about these four. They wore the symbol of Bolshoi´s house. This was interesting. They were Kaia´s kin. His mind turned once again as he noticed the other woman, the blonde one. She was Kaia´s kin.....he smiled once more before going back to his tent. He would ask to see them, before the battle.  
  
Inside, Arulo was surprised to find a man. He recognized him. Chilaviek. Not a man. This dragon was also a problem. He had once been under the guard of Bolshoi and he´d learned much, he did not approve of the Padeos´ services being offered to men. Arulo sighed, trying to show he was not impressed.  
  
"You humans always measure everything by wether or not it bores you."  
  
"What do you care dragon? You believe us so weak to not even show us your true selves.....or maybe you are just afraid."  
  
"Fear has nothing to do with it. You know this so I will not explain myself to you."  
  
"What do you want dragon?"  
  
"I wish to greet you and to learn if you will join us in the battle."  
  
"I command a great army and all of it is here, is it not?"  
  
"That is not what I asked. I want to know if you will join us."  
  
"You will fight?"  
  
"Yes. The Borderlands are to close to my own land, Nok."  
  
"Ah yes.....the Land of Light....." He sat down on a rather large chair. Chilaviek could never understand the need for humans to have furniture larger than was necessary, or convinient. Arulo smiled, as if he knew some sort of secret. Chilaviek looked in his mind. There was nothing there but treachery and selfishness. "You did not seriously come here simply to greet me, did you dragon?"  
  
"No. As I said, I wish to know if you will-"  
  
"Fight? I suppose." Arulo tried to sound bored. Chilaviek knew the truth: fighting terrified him. He´d only been in three battles so far. He´d run away from two and had been rescued by Kaia on the third. That had been two years ago. Arulo continued, "I noticed all of the Padeos have arrived. Even the vrigda."  
  
"Yes. They were all called to fight."  
  
"And they all came. Well at least I can say one thing for them: they know how to obey."  
  
"They were called to fight, not ordered to do so."  
  
"Ah yes.....you have no masters. Intersting. A creature with no masters is a creature with no loyalty."  
  
"The Padeos are loyal to many things, most of which you, Arulo, have little understanding."  
  
"Teach me."  
  
"Patience. Strength. Honor. Truth. Loyalty. Every Padeos would die three times for each."  
  
"I am not sure I cannot trust creatures who cannot see beyond these simple words."  
  
"They are not just simple words, Arulo."  
  
"They are to me, dragon. But, as you often say, I am not one of your.....people." He spat the last word out with disdain. Chilaviek controlled the urge to singe the man before him. "Everyone came then? Even Kaia."  
  
"Yes. Her vrigda is here."  
  
"I wish to see her."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"It is not your concern, dragon.....if you must know, I noticed there are four more, one of them a Jaffa."  
  
"Yes. They are of her house."  
  
"Really? How?"  
  
"You know how."  
  
"I meant since when."  
  
"Not long ago."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"They were lost. Kaia met them on their journey and offered to bring them to her house."  
  
"They are Padeos then?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Why were they lost?"  
  
"They were far from home. They have no other kin in these lands."  
  
"What about their house?"  
  
"They are part of Bolshoi´s house now."  
  
"And the previous one."  
  
"Do you sincerely care, Arulo?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Then it is not your concern."  
  
Chilaviek left. He didn't even turn to acknowledge the man. Arulo despised when they did that. Dragons never bowed to men. When they were in his service, he would change all that. They would bow to men. All men, even the most lowly. Arulo found this amusing. He enjoyed picturing the Chitkina (especially the Dragons) being humiliated. His musings continued until a voice called out to him. It was Kaia. 


	15. The nuisance

The only living thing Kaia had ever come to truly hate was Arulo. His name only meant traitor to her. Earlier, when she´d described Arulo as a "nuisance" she had made a great understatement. She now stood before him. He leered at her. Kaia felt Vozem´s anger grow inside of him, but she made him stand still with simply one look. He came close. His breath smelled of wine, Kaia didn´t need to smell that to know he was drunk, as usual. He stood close to Kaia, too close for comfort, but she was not about to be intimidated by this man. She stood her ground. Kaia spoke in the language of the man, and SG-1 understood everything.  
  
"Kaia. I´m glad you could come."  
  
"What do you want?"  
  
"Simply put....." Arulo´s eyes wondered up and down Kaia. O´Neill felt Vozem tense once more, "I noticed there are four more in your vrigda, one of them Jaffa. I was not informed of this."  
  
"It is not my job or interest to consult with humans on wether or not I recruit new members into my vridga."  
  
"They are also new members of your house?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Their own home is far away. It was my choice."  
  
"And I imagine you have your reasons."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Care to share?"  
  
"No."  
  
Arulo was annoyed. He stepped back. He paced the room, staring at every member of SG-1. He placed special attention to Teal´c.  
  
"I have not seen this symbol before."  
  
Kaia spoke before Teal´c had a chance to explain, "You have never been to the Jaffa lands. How do you know which symbols are used or not?"  
  
Arulo did not challenge this. He moved on. His eyes came to rest on Sam. O´Neill was immediately hit by all that was going through his head. He did not like what he saw.  
  
"They do not look as if they belong."  
  
"They do not. I took them in. They are my kin now."  
  
"Where is their home?"  
  
"Will you go visit them?"  
  
"Unlikely. I do not associate with.....creatures."  
  
"Then you do not need to know."  
  
His eyes turned to Kaia briefly. Then went back to Sam.  
  
"Well, I must admit I do not dissaprove completely of this new.....kin of yours, Kaia."  
  
He reached a hand out but it never touched Sam. O´Neill launched forward, knocked him down, grabbed him by the neck, held him down by his chest. It was exactly the same thing Kaia had done to O´Neill the previous day. Kaia smiled and said nothing. Arulo gasped for breath and he hit O´Neill, he didn´t let go.  
  
"Arulo, they are of my people and my kin. Do you still doubt it?"  
  
"You.....are the.....same.....you.....barbarians....."  
  
"We are not. You provoked him." She touched O´Neill´s shoulder, "Let him go, Jack."  
  
Amazingly enough, O´Neill did let go. He stood in front of Sam, though. Kaia helped Arulo up.  
  
"You would be wise not to overstep your bounds again, Leader of Men. We are not your servants or subjects."  
  
"That may soon change."  
  
"Fate will decide, we will see."  
  
She smiled one last time at him and left. The rest of the vrigda followed. Once outside, Kaia waited for O´Neill. He expected the girl to dissaprove of what he´d just done, he was surprised.  
  
"That was impressive, Jack. You are a quick learner, most Padeos take months to learn how to choke someone like that. I knew you were good warriors."  
  
O´Neill was confused, again. Kaia simply smiled and shrugged. Obviously, this guy was not her favorite person. 


	16. The Battle

After their encounter with Arulo, Kaia dissapeared. Stari explained to SG-1 that she was with Chilaviek. They found out no more. Ther morning wore on and Vozem and Stari took it upon themselves to help the strengers. All in all, they weren´t bad. Even Daniel started improving quickly as soon as he was able to access the information in his mind. They had been practicing for only a couple of hours when Kaia came back. She was silent and her mind was troubled. She looked at Koshka and Alma and nodded, almost imperceptibly. The two girls stood and walked in the direction she had just come from. Kaia´s eyes followed them. Daniel could sense her feelings. She wasn´t just worried, she was terrified. Vozem came near her but she only smiled at him briefly and left. Daniel had to know.  
  
"What just happened?"  
  
"We will be leaving soon. She had gone to pray to the Great Dragons."  
  
"She seemed worried about something."  
  
"She spoke to Chilaviek. He´s decided tha Koshka and Alma are ready to fight."  
  
"What? But they´re just kids."  
  
"They are Gyffin and Sabaki and, they are ready."  
  
"How do you know that?"  
  
"Both girls know it in their hearts, so does Kaia.", Vozem turned to Daniel, "She would have them stay behind, if she could. It is not up to her. If they win honor in this battle they will be free to return to their people, would you not consider this enough cause to fight? Going home?"  
  
Daniel didn´t answer. Vozem was right. He was fighting to go home. Shortly after that Stari left too, then Vozem. SG-1 was left alone. They were trying to straighten things out in their head. By now, it was pretty obvious that some of the thoughts and feelings going through them had been put there by Kaia, it was simply difficult to distinguish the ones that they´d had before. They were so deep in their own thoughts they didn´t notice the old man, Stari, coming back for them. When they did notice, he simply told them to change.  
  
His clothes had changed. He wore the tight pants and boots, along with a longer shirt which reached down to below the hip. It had a dragon on it. It was red and had enormous wings. His sword hung at his side and the daggers on his back. SG-1 went to change, Daniel looked back before going into the cave. Stari had kneeled down on the grass, his eyes were closed, he was meditating.  
  
Once inside, they noticed Kaia was not there. They decided it was best to leave her alone, for the time being. They didn´t really like the choice they had, but they changed nonetheless and went back outside. The last one to do so was Teal´c. He was walking back outside, slowly when he noticed something: there was a light coming from the chamber under the stairs. He went in, cautiously. He found Kaia sitting on the floor, she had changed and her shirt had an extra line down the sides, it was red. She was just sitting there, staring at the wall.  
  
"Are you allright?"  
  
Kaia seemed surprised. She looked at the Jaffa and smiled weakly, "I am."  
  
"You are worried about the girls."  
  
"I.....in my heart I know they are ready but.....I raised them, Teal´c. I do not want them to get hurt."  
  
"I understand your feelings, but you must trust in these girls to protect themselves now."  
  
"Do you really? Understand, I mean."  
  
"Indeed."  
  
"How?"  
  
"I have a son."  
  
"Really? I did not know." Teal´c was surprised, he had imagined that, just like his teamates, Kaia had looked into his mind. Kaia was quick to explain, "You keep many things secret, Teal´c. I did not wish to intrude."  
  
The Jaffa bowed his head, in gratitude. Kaia took a deep breath.  
  
"So, your son, is he a warrior as well?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"You must be proud."  
  
"Indeed, I am."  
  
"How do you do it? How do you let him fight? Do you not fear for his life?"  
  
"Indeed, I do but, he is skilled. I must have faith in his abilities to fight and to survive."  
  
"I wish I could have the same faith, Teal´c."  
  
"You do not trust these girls."  
  
"I trust them but, I am more afraid. Training is not fighting, it all changes."  
  
"I agree." Kaia stood and leaned against a wall, crossing her arms, "The first time my son say battle I wanted to stop him. I could not. In the end, he proved to be most skilled and he saved both mine and a friend´s lives, he also helped save the Tau´ri."  
  
"Tau´ri?"  
  
"Humans."  
  
"He must indeed be an honorable warrior, he must have had a good teacher."  
  
"Indeed."  
  
Kaia straightened up and looked down at herself, "They promoted me. I am now in command of all vrigda."  
  
"Congratulations." Teal´c bowed once more. Kaia only laughed.  
  
"I do not know why they did this. Chilaviek said the council approved. I doubt it but....."  
  
"Your people stand on the brink of war with each other. They need someone who will unite them, give them hope, strength."  
  
"I doubt that person is me, Teal´c."  
  
"As you often say, time will tell."  
  
"Fate will tell, Teal´c.....you are right. Thank you, Teal´c."  
  
Teal´c bowed his head once more. Kaia smiled. She took a deep breath and walked out. The sight that met her was impressive: lined up, standing by vrigda, and behind them, the rest of the army, were all the Padeos, Niseos, humans and even the few Gyffin and Sabaki they had managed to find outside their lands. Chilaviek was there, as was Arulo. Kaia took her place next to them. Teal´c joined SG-1, his friends, too, were impressed. Chilaviek spoke, his voice was clear and powerfull.  
  
"The Sailen have taken the Borderland. We come here today to take it back. Never before had these people ventured so far into our own lands, we must show them no mercy will be shown to those who would take us as servants and slaves." O´Neill got a feeling the dragon wasn´t speaking only of the Sailen; Arulo must´ve too, he shifted nervously. Chilaviek continued, "Kaia now will lead the vrigda. She is an honorable warrior, her heart is true and in her head is wisdom beyond her years."  
  
Chilviek turned to Kaia, he took her sword and jamned it into the ground. Kaia bowed in the way of her people. Chilaviek put his hand on her shoulder, "Kaia, do you trust your people?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Do you trust them with your life?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Do you trust them with the life of the innocents we protect?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Do you believe they have honor?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Would you die for them?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Hope it does not come to that, child." He took his hand away, Kaia straightened up and took the sword from the ground.  
  
"May the Fortunes of Fate, the Wisdom of Knowledge and the Strength of Courage go with you, Child of the Dragons, Steward of the Ancient ones, Leader of Padeos." Chilaviek bowed. Kaia smiled and walked to her vrigda. The rest of the army moved out, without another word.  
  
The Borderlands were less than an hour´s ride away. Kaia went in front, followed closely by her vrigda. The human army marched next to the Chitkina people, but they rarely even looked at each other. They arrived at a clearing, were a great army was already waiting for them. Most of the soldiers were on foot and had weapons that looked somewhat like Teal´c´s staff-weapon. O´Neill had always imagined the actual beginning of the battle would be somewhat more ceremonious: they would trade insults and threats, then they would fall back and get organized and after all that, the –attacking- would actually start. He was very surprised. Kaia simply raised her sword and all the army raced forward. O´Neill felt a little confused but a part of him (the same part that was handling a sword, riding a horse into battle and cutting off Sailen heads) knew that there was no other way: they were there to fight, not to negotiate and not to throw threats in the air.  
  
The Sailen army was much smaller than the Chitkina and human one, however, they still gave a good fight. At first glance, it might seem the Sailen had an advantage because they had fire power, but, they could only fire five shots before having to re-charge their power source, at which point, several Chitkina or human soldiers would fall on them and kill them. The Chitkina never took the enemies weapons, the humans did. It was all going fairly well, death and more death was being spread around and they could all feel the fear of the Sailen people growing. They would be defeated, there was no question about that. Kaia did not know at what moment her vrigda was separated, Vozem was suddenly to the far south of the field, Stari and Alma were east and Sam and Koshka were to the west. She felt fear growing inside of her. She was afraid they would be killed. She suddenly felt a cold blow to her head. It had happened, someone was shot down. She quickly tried to locate everyone, in her head she felt all their prescences, no one was dead, but one of them was hurt, seriously hurt. It was with no relief that she learned it was Koshka. She did not stop to think what she would do, she got off the horse, grabbed O´Neill and Daniel by the arms and started running. The men followed her, blindly, knowing something was wrong but not being able to understand what. They managed to get into the treeline, where she was sure Koshka had gone.  
  
It didn´t take them long to find them. Koshka had run into the treeline and Sam had followed her, trying to bring her back. As soon as they were in the forest, the Sailen had started shooting. Koshka had been hit on the sixth attempt and Sam had managed to drag her under the cover of a large tree. In truth, Sam was panicking, if she´d had a weapon that fired she would of easily been able to covert he girl but, she did not. She had already thrown both daggers, succesfully taking out two Sailen soldiers. It was just when she was about to try to run for help when she felt something. Someone was there. Her head almost hurt because of it, slowly it all became cleared. It was O´Neill, he had someone with him. Two more. She didn´t know who. They were coming straight at her.  
  
She saw them shortly after that. It wasn´t very hard for them to take out the Sailen soldiers: they weren´t expecting anyone to come after these two and they did not have any psychic abilities. There were only about six soldiers holding Sam and Koshka down. Once they were dead, Daniel, Kaia and O´Neill joined them. Koshka was hurt seriously, she´d actually been hit twice. Kaia tried to wake her up but it was no good. The girl was very much unconscious. Sam didn´t know what to say, she had no idea what had come over her. It had been a stupid move, to go after the girl, but she couldn´t help it, as soon as she noticed she´d been running towards the trees she somehow knew what would happen. O´Neill kept looking at her, she kept trying to make this one thought clear in her head so that he would understand. It was hard to tell if he did or not. They were all so wrapped up in their own heads and worrying so much that they didn´t notice the dozens of Sailen soldiers coming their way. By the time Kaia sensed them it was too late, one of them had already thrown a knife.  
  
It is a lucky fact when your enemy is a bad shot. In this case, the Sailen were terrible shots. The knife had been aimed at Kaia´s head but it, in fact, landed on Sam´s shoulder. This was not so lucky. Sam fell to the ground and Kaia threw her own dagger into the trees. Not so much luck for the Sailen people, she was an excelent shot. O´Neill was starting to get desperate, Daniel was starting to panick, Koshka was still out of it and Sam was seeing funky colors from the pain. Kaia was attacked by a solder from behind. She quickly killed him. Another one attacked Daniel, he managed to wound him enough so that he would die eventually. O´Neill managed to kill one and wound another. As the first one fell, O´Neill went to grab his weapon. Kaia stopped him.  
  
"No."  
  
"It´s our only shot!"  
  
"No!"  
  
She kicked the weapon away. O´Neill was beyond pissed. They were surrounded, far away from back up, pinned down and had two casualties. He wasn´t counting on Kaia having one more trick.  
  
The girl looked up, the top of the trees was far away but there were some openings she could make out. She only hoped they were large enough for a dragon to get through.....She grabbed O´Neill by the collar and took a deep breath. Her eyes glowed, a mist came from nowhere. O´Neill suddenly felt a voice speaking to him, although he didn´t understand what it said. His feet left the ground. He was going up. Was he leaving the rest behind? He looked down. Inside the massive claws of a dragon were the rest of the people. The Sailen soldiers were scared, most of them ran away as soon as they saw the dragon, the few that remained tried to shoot it down, without success.  
  
They went over the trees and above the battle. It was almost over. In fact, a great part of the Chitkina army seemed to simply be standing around, with not much to do. A few Salien solders were running away, others were still fighting, those would be dead soon. Kaia led them back to the encampent, were there were already many Healers ready to tend to the wounded. As soon as Koshka and Sam were set down, the dragon dissappeared, leaving both Daniel and O´Neill in an ungracefull heap at the ground. Three girls and a man came over to the immediately. They poured water on Sam´s wound and fed Koshka a plant. Shortly after that, she was sick, but conscious. Sam was carried back into a tent. The knife had made a deep gash that was bleeding heavily. She´d lost consciousness on their way back. O´Neill got up and looked at Kaia.  
  
"Go." She said, quietly. O´Neill ran after Sam. Daniel tried to follow but Kaia stopped him.  
  
"Please, Daniel. Go with Koshka. Make sure she is allright."  
  
"Sam is my friend!"  
  
"Please, Daniel."  
  
"What about you?"  
  
"I need to go back. Find Alma."  
  
"I´ll go."  
  
"You cannot go fast enough! Daniel, please. Alma´s sister if very ill, I need to go find her.....she would never forgive me if I did not."  
  
"What about Sam?"  
  
"Sam will be fine. Jack went with her, do you not trust him?"  
  
"It´s not about that....."  
  
"Please. I only need you to stay with Koshka until I return. It will not be long, I promise."  
  
"What about the rest?"  
  
"They will come when the battle is over."  
  
She said no more. She turned around, the dragon came again and she flew away. Daniel, went to the tent were Koshka was. The girl did not look good. She was half awake and speaking in a language Daniel did not know. He hated this. He wasn´t good at keeping patients company. He sat down on the floor next to the girl, all his thoughts on Sam. 


	17. More pain

The pain was incredible. It was sharp. Relentless. Full of anger. Sam could barely see beyond the many colors that blurred her vision. Was the knife poisoned? Probably. They had made her lie on her stomach, to inspect the wound. Someone was putting something inside of it. It momentarily felt better. She was able to see beyond the colors. O´Neill was there. He looked pale. Sam blinked in an attempt to keep the colors from gaining ground. She lost. She suddenly felt something else creeping into her vision. Dark. Black. Comforting. Warm. She passed out again.  
  
O´Neill could not believe what he´d done. He´d been reckless, thoughtless, as usual. He´d put the entire team in danger by allowing Kaia to help them. He kicked himself in the head one more time, just to have something to do other than worry. He´d been allowed to stay but only on the condition that he did not get in the way. He´d been sent to the corner where he paced and paced and paced. He looked at Sam. She didn´t look very good. She looked sort of.....green, actually. She opened her eyes but it was obvious she could see nothing, suddenly, all that changed. She focused. She saw him. He stopped pacing, tried to look calm. She was struggling to keep her eyes focused. She actually held out for a few minutes before passing out again.The Healers worked as quickly as they could. They took the knife out, poured more water and stuck some plants into the wound. The plants smelled sweet. Outside, a bird chirped, unaware of all that was wrong in the universe at that moment. The grass grew, the river kept running. All of them without noticing the single most important problem that was at that moment: Sam was hurt and O´Neill could do nothing about it.  
  
Sam opened her eyes, slowly. It was dark outside. Something was being burned, or rather, someone. Many people. Sailen people. All being cremated, later, they would be buried. The Chitkina had respect for them, even though they were their enemies. Daniel was there, helping to carry bodies and make holes. So was Teal´c. They had both been in to see her before. Earlier. O´Neill was still there. In the corner. Passed out. No. Asleep. Barely. Sam was finally able to focus. She tried moving. It wasn´t too bad. She managed to sit up. Her shoulder was actually numb. She could just barely feel the bandages around the wound. Next to her, jamned into the floor, was the knife. She took a hold of the handle and pulled it out. It wasn´t a normal knife. The point split into lots of different points, of various shape and legth. She inspected it more carefully, it was actually a double bladed knife. No wonder it had hurt so much. Sam dropped the knife when she heard a voice behind her.  
  
"They said you shouldn´t touch that. Not until you´re healed. Some sort of weird.....thing."  
  
Sam picked up the knife and put it back in the ground. She turned. The sensation of numbness had lessened a little and she was afraid it would soon begin to hurt.  
  
"It won´t hurt. At least, that´s what they say."  
  
Sam nodded her head. What else could she do? She sure as hell didn´t know. She thought she should explain herself. She decided that was about as wise a thing to do.  
  
"Sir...." She bagan, but was cutoff.  
  
"Don´t. This is my fault."  
  
Sam wasn´t surprised to hear that. What she was surprised about was how angry it made her.  
  
"It wasn´t your fault. I decided to follow the girl, no one made me."  
  
"That´s not what I meant."  
  
"Kaia was only trying to help us and it´s not like you ordered us to let her! We all agreed to do this, all of us."  
  
"Carter don´t patronize me. You know how it works, I am the comanding officer, I´m responsible."  
  
"Not this time."  
  
"Don't argue with me, I could of stopped this, I could of-"  
  
"What? Could of what, sir. With all due respect, with had very few choices here."  
  
"I shouldn´t of taken the decision so lightly."  
  
"You made no decision that we didn´t agree with. This wasn´t your fault."  
  
"Then whose was it then?"  
  
"No one! Can´t you just understand that? Some things you can´t control, no matter how hard you try, you can´t control when someone will get hurt or a mission fail."  
  
"I can´t accept that."  
  
"Well you´re gonna have to."  
  
"I can´t!"  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Because....." O´Neill had gotten to his feet now. The answer was there, it was right there. Sam knew it. She had always known it. She´d known everything. She just felt like, this time, she needed to hear it. O´Neill backed down and shook his head. Sam was outraged. She got up, with every intention of storming out. Didn´t quite work out. She fell back down. O´Neill was there immediately, "You can´t move. They said you might.....pass out again. Maybe in the morning."  
  
Sam didn´t know what to say. She took a deep breath and calmed down. She looked at O´Neill. She didn´t need psychic abilities to know what he felt and thought. She´d known that for a long time.   
  
"Look.....Sam, I....." He rolled his eyes and sat down next to her. For a long time, he said nothing. She said nothing. Finally, Sam took a deep breath.  
  
"Sir I know tha-"  
  
"-Sir- Really? Where having –this-", he pointed to both of them, "conversation and you´re gonna call me –sir-"  
  
Sam smiled. He was right. But she couldn´t help it. It was her way of dealing with –it-. She bit her lip before continuing, "I just....it really wasn´t your fault."  
  
"I know but it´s just that....." This was hard. He took another deep breath, "I worry about you, ok? I just.....can´t help it." It had sounded a lot better in his head. He looked down at his feet. Sam looked down at hers.  
  
"I know, but you can´t always control what´ll happen. No one can. Besides, I´m quite capable of taking care of myself."  
  
"I know that! I´ve never doubted it."  
  
"I know, I just....."  
  
O´Neill laughed. Sam stared at him. He composed himself and looked at her.  
  
"Is there anything you don´t know?"  
  
Sam smiled. So did O´Neill. They had, once more, graciously, avoided –the topic-. O´Neill got up.  
  
"The ah......Healers, said that you should eat as soon as you woke up. I´ll ah.....get you something."  
  
Sam nodded. And watched him leave. She decided to try to put what had just happened in the back of her mind. It wasn´t quite as easy as she thought it would be. 


	18. Suspicion

O´Neill was gone for a long time. Sam had practically bored herself back to sleep when someone did come in. It was a girl. She was young and somehow familiar. It took Sam a while to figure out who she was, she´d been one of the Healers. In her mind, she knew how it all worked, Healers and Padeos and all, but she was still shocked at the fact that her –doctor- (for lack of a better word) was a kid no older than twelve. Sam smiled at her. The kid had brought some food, which Sam accepted. The girl went round the bed and took the knife, she inspected it. She seemed pleased, somehow.

"You already picked it up?", the girl asked. Sam nodded, not sure if she´d done anything wrong, "Good. It means you are healed." Sam was confused, but let it go for the moment, she had a better question for the girl.

"Where´s Colonel O´Neill?" The girl seemd confused for a second. She stared at Sam for a while, finally realizing who she was talking about.

"Jack?" Sam nodded, the girl´s smile faded, "He was summoned before the council. As were the rest of your people, so was Kaia.", the girl came closer, lowering her voice, "Arulo is there. He wishes for Kaia to explain her actions to him. He claims she fled the battle, abandoned the army in favor of you, he has called her a traitor."

Sam knew this was not good. She was just about to ask the girl to take her to the council, but the girl anticipated this and laid a hand on her shoulder.

"You cannot go. You are healed, but not well enough to move much yet. Kaia left instructions. She said you should lie down, relax and she shall find you, you will see, she does not wish this to be kept from you."

Sam didn´t understand, but the girl insisted she lay down. Finally, Sam gave in. The girl left her, but sent two soldiers to stand watch at the entrance. Sam didn´t know if it was so she would not leave, or so that no one would come in. It took her a while, but she suddenly felt an overwhelming need to actually close her eyes and stop thinking. She didn´t know where the feeling came from, but she knew one thing for sure: it did not come from her. She finally decided to just give in. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.....

There was a room. A circular room. It wasn´t a room. A cave. It was almost a dream.....no, a vision. Everyone was there. Arulo. Kaia. Koshka. Alma. Teal´c. Daniel. O´Neill. Chilaviek. Other people, other men. Not men. Dragons. The council. It was surreal. Kaia looked at Sam for a second, everyone else ignored her. It took a moment for her to understand she wasn´t actually there. Sam lost track of what was happening for a second, lost in what she was experiencing. They had seen telepathic abilities before but this was amazing, Kaia had actually formed a link to her mind and was sending information, kind of like a camara. Sam suddenly felt something like a slap across the face. She snapped back to what was happening. Kaia was staring at her, then she signaled with her eyes for Sam to pay attention to Arulo, who was speaking.

"I do not call into question the breavery or honor of the Padeos or Niseos or any other Creature of the Light, only of one soldier. I only wish it to be made clear why Kaia left the battle field. She leads all vrigda now, should she not look to her own people? To her own troops?"

No one spoke. Chilaviek seemed angry, pissed even, but he didn´t move a muscle. Arulo paced the room, a look of mock shock and concern on his face. He stopped in front of Kaia, but she said nothing. It wasn´t until Chilaviek looked over at Kaia and nodded that she even moved. The first thing she did, was take a step back. She fixed her eyes on Arulo and spoke.

"I have no need or desire to explain my actions to you."

Arulo smiled, "Maybe you don´t but you have no choice."

"I serve no man. You are not my master. I owe you nothing."

"That may soon change-"

"So you keep saying."

Arulo was not pleased to have been interrupted. His expression turned from mockery to anger. Kaia´s face remained blank.

"Listen ,–Padeos-, you may soon come to change your opinion but for now, you are right, I do not command you but I did go to battle with you. As a warrior, an honorable warrior, you should tell me."

"I left because two soldiers were wounded. They were going to die."

"I find that hard to believe," Arulo put an arm around Koshka. Sam swore Alma growled, "this girl is here. She does not seem so wounded to me."

"Gyffins heal quickly, that does not mean they do not die if they are simply left in the field."

"What about the other one? She is not here." Arulo looked at O´Neill and sneered. Sam felt the uncontrolable desire to strangle the man. This time, Chilaviek interrupted.

"Maybe I am mistaken, Lord of Men, but was this council not called to explain the actions of Kaia and not the health of the wounded?"

Arulo turned briefly to the dragon, then went back to Kaia, "In my mind, they are the same. Dozens of your soldiers were wounded, she carried none of them back. It seems obvious to me that one of two things happened: she would risk the lives of hundreds over these two or, she simply looked for an excuse to be left outside the battle."

"I am no coward!"

"Then you must truly care for these two. As I understand it in your world, Gyffins are a precious commodity, correct?"

Koshka could hold her tongue no more, "I am no one´s property. I am a warrior, same as any other that fought on that field!"

Kaia made her back down with one look. The girl did so, but looked no less hostile towards Arulo, who only smiled. He was amused by all of this, "I am not questioning your skills girl, simply your importance." He turned once more to Kaia, and shrugged his shoulders, "I understand why you would save her, but what of the other one? She is simply one more Padeos."

"She is my kin."

"Not by blood."

"Does it matter?"

"It should. Blood matters more than any you people believe exists in the universe."

"That is your belief, not mine."

"Is that why you left? Because she is your kin?"

"I will not explain my actions to you. I would not explain them to any man, but especially you."

"I sense you hide something from me. What makes these four strangers so important?" Arulo looked at each of the three members of SG-1 closely, none of them even looked at him. O´Neill was the only one who even moved, he made fists with his hands. He was trying to stop himself from killing the man in front of him. Kaia, literally, pulled Arulo away.

"They are as important as any other."

Arulo quickly forgot about O´Neill and focused back on Kaia, "I don´t believe you. You," he turned to the council, "all of you, are hiding something from me, from men."

"Not from men."

"Then you do not deny it?"

"Deny what? That these four are important? They are. Why should they not be?"

"You did not answer my question."

"I have no reason to explain myself to you, Arulo. If you must know, I will not leave any member of my vrigda behind, I would die if it meant they even had a chance to live."

"Noble sentiment. And one of the main reasons why your race will die out. You sacrifice too much, Kaia. This will be the end of you."

Sam knew this was a pretty direct threat. Kaia smiled defiantly at the man in front of her.

"As I said: I have no wish nor need to explain myself to you." She turned to Chilaviek and bowed, when she rose, she turned. All the others followed. Before leaving, she turned back to Arulo, "There are dead to bury, all kinds. I would much rather see to that than stand here anther moment. You are no honorable man, Arulo." She didn´t bow down before she left. Arulo turned back to the council and said something, but Sam could no longer see or hear it. She opened her eyes. She was back. No. She never left. She sat up. It wasn´t long before Kaia came in, O´Neill followed.

Kaia seemed concerned. She hadn´t even changed clothes. Blood and dirt still clung to her. She sat down in front of Sam.

"He suspects." Sam didn´t understand, Kaia looked down at the floor, "There are rumors. He has only asked so much about you because he suspects something. You will have to leave soon."

She got back up and looked outside. Most of the people who were not hurt were working. Dragging bodies, burning bodies, digging holes, burying ashes and pieces of bone and cloth and weapons. Sam was amazed at the respect they seemed to show to the dead, even their enemies. They were all treated the same: individual graves, prayers, writing in the dirt, saying the one lying there was a warrior, an honorable warrior. Kaia laughed.

"You are surprised. So were Daniel and Teal´c. They fought for their army and lost, that does not mean they do not deserve to be buried."

O´Neill stood next to Kaia, "They wouldn´t do the same for you."

"Maybe not but, that does not mean we would disrespect them." She turned and called Sam over. She did, with some effort. She still felt less than sure on her feet. O´Neill kept an eye on her. Kaia pointed to the sky. It was amazing, the moon was shinning, but there were absolutely no stars in the sky. O´Neill had already seen and marvelled at it, now, he was more concerned about Sam being on her feet. Sam was to shocked to notice. Stars should not dissappear like that, not unless there was an atmospheric condition. Her mind was racing. She felt Kaia touch her arm. She looked at the girl, who was smiling.

"We have no explanations such as the ones you have in your mind, Sam. We believe that Life mourns them. It does not matter that they were our enemies, Life still blessed them with her gift and it has been taken."

Sam looked back up at the sky. She had to admit, that explanation was a lot more inspiring and comforting than any she could come up with. O´Neill rolled his eyes and Sam heard a distinct "For cryin´ out loud" come from him. She grinned but Kaia looked over at him.

"You do not believe they should be mourned?"

O´Neill faced Kaia, "Yeah sure, by their own people! They were your enemies, they tried to kill you, invade you."

"They did not try, they succeeded in the invasion but, they were still living and feeling creatures, Jack."

"They tried to kill you."

"They did not succeed in that. Why should I hold it against them?" Kaia looked back up at the sky and sighed. Her smile grew wider, "You are right, Jack. They were our enemies and that is why, Life may mourn them, but we still celebrate their defeat."

Kaia walked out. Sam shrugged her shoulders and went back in, she needed to sit down and eat, she was starving. O´Neill called out to Kaia, "What is that supposed to mean?"

Kaia didn´t even stop, simply called over her shoulder, "You will see tomorrow night."

She walked to a group that was digging holes and started working herself. O´Neill turned back. He sat down on the floor, saying nothing. Sam ate slowly, mostly thinking about everything that had happened since they´d arrived on that planet. She suddenly realized how much she missed being home. At least everything made sense there. She looked up and found that O´Neill was staring at her. She smiled at him, it made her nervous when he looked at her like that. His mind was racing. She looked back down at her food. She really didn´t want to know what it was racing about.


	19. Celebration

The next day went by without much of anything happening. Some very nice and long ceremonies were held to conmemorate the dead humans. Kaia had attended, but had not looked happy about it. Stari had graciously avoided the funerals, Vozem and Malinki had hidden in the caves, Iablaka had run into the forest with Alma and Koshka and all four members of SG-1 were excused by Chilaviek himself. Kaia had most defenately not been happy about it. It was after midday that she came back, hungry and half asleep. She was complaining.

"I do not understand. Why must death be so.....depressing for humans? Can they not see it is better to be dead than dying and bury the corpses and be done with it?" She looked over at SG-1, Daniel tried to explain how death was painfull because it meant parting with a loved one but Kaia would hear none of it, she waved Daniel silent, "I am hungry and I do not wish to be depressed anymore. Today we all celebrate! Should I be the only Padeos not to because of human costums?" With that she took some food and stormed off, to find Vozem and threaten his life. He was supposed to have come with her.

That was basically the high light of the day, so the next ten hours before sunset, SG-1 found themselves in a very unique position: they were bored stiff. No one wanted to hear the story of how the Padeos had come to be one more time, none of them wanted to be tested on their newfound abilities as Padeos and they didn´t know how to make themselves usefull. Boring was practically the only word that could describe their situation at that moment. However, everything ends, and finally, the sun set. Kaia came to look for them, with a very apologetic Vozem trailing after her. She ignored Vozem, and asked SG-1 to go back inside and change clothes. Vozem went ahead with them, Kaia stopped Sam.

"How are you feeling?"

Sam didn´t want to talk about that. She felt fine, and it wasn´t a lie, she really did feel fine, as if nothing had happened. Her arm was no longer numb and nothing hurt, she wasn´t even wearing a sling, and the bandage had been removed that morning. There had been nothing under the cloth wrappings, only a small mark, as if she´d scraped her skin, not had a knife in her, "I´m fine."

"That is to be expected. How do you feel about your change? About the Padeos?"

Another topic worth avoiding, "It´s strange."

"I am trying to make conversation, Sam, I can see it all in your head."

Why is it people always want to ask what they already know?, "Then why do you ask?"

"You have so many emotions in your head.....I would simply like to know the truth."

The truth isn´t that simple, "Well, it´s strange I never thought it possible to be like this."

"Jack thinks it .....and somehow inappropiate, he thinks it is not right to be changing your body chemistry like this."

Sam was shocked, she really doubted that´s what O´Neill actually thought, "Well you would know."

"Yes I would. I do. It is not as if I can avoid it, you work so hard to keep most things from the people around you. You do not trust us."

Something that wasn´t quite correct, "We barely know you, we´re just.....cautious."

"I do not mean us as strangers from another planet. You do not trust anybody. There is not a single person you know who actually understands you, who knows all you know and all you feel."

If you get techinical, no one really knows anyone, ever, "Things are just different were we come from."

"I know. You do not feel comfortable here. You do not understand us, even if you are one of us."

Not exactly one of them, "Things are just.....different."

"You do not have to be polite. I know your true feelings. You are confused and you also feel-"

Is she ever wrong?, "Confused doesn´t quite cover it."

"You dislike some of our costums even. Our clothes. Our way of fighting. Our beliefs in somethings and our distaste for.....science."

It wasn´t exactly a dislike, "It´s not you Kaia. Everything here is just.....different."

Kaia smiled and started walking towards the cave. Sam didn´t know what else to do, so she followed the girl. Kaia didn´t keep quiet for long, "You are nervous." Sam didn´t say anything. The girl was right, what point was there in confirming it?, "Your teamates do not think any less of you, no matter what you do."

Sam stopped. She was now, for sure, confused. She had absolutely no idea what Kaia was talking about. The girl stopped too, and lowered her voice. They were at the very entrance to the cave, "In your planet, great importance is placed on whether you are a man or a woman. You are seen different. You, Sam, are different."

Sam knew that! She really didn´t need to hear it from this girl. She tried to keep her eyes from rolling. Kaia simply went on, "I can only know what it is like, but I cannot understand it. In any case, as long as you are here you will not be judged."

Sam thought it was all vaguely familiar, more than one person has given her that speech before, but she didn´t really care at the moment. She still had no idea what Kaia was trying to say. Kaia smiled, yet again.

"It is curious. You do not know what your mind is thinking. It would be fascinating but, I feel this is not the time," For once, Sam agreed with Kaia, "In the very back of your mind, you are worried about many things, but one of them, is not having your uniforms. They make you the same as everyone else, you do not feel you are out of place. Whenever you are home, you do not feel the need to be the same as the others, you are not at work, you do not need to prove yourself. You are here, you are working and.....you are made to stand out from the rest of your group."

Sam really couldn´t believe what she was hearing. This girl actually thought that she was worried about clothes! It was ridiculous, and it was untrue. She had nothing to worry about, there was no problem. They were stranded and trying to blend in with the locals, no one on SG-1 had a choice, not even Teal´c. They all had to do certain things, including, wearing the clothes the locals provided for them. Kaia said no more, simply looked at her. Sam stared right back. Finally, Kaia shrugged and went inside. Sam followed her, this time she didn´t bother to hide the fact that she was rolling her eyes. Inside, everyone had changed. They all had clean shirts and pants, it was almost as if nothing had happened. Sam had a strange moment were she actually felt comforted by seeing those clothes. She shook the thought away, with every hour that passed it got more and more difficult to tell which thoughts and opinions were her own and which were not. She looked at her team. Teal´c looked, as ever, almost blank. Sam caught a glimpse of amusement at something, probably O´Neill, who was standing in the middle of the room, looking awkward, as if he had nothing to do. Daniel was sitting down, but wearing pretty much the same expresion on his face. Sam smiled at them and would of joined them, but something was handed out to her. It was Kaia, she´d pulled some clean clothes from a shelf. She signaled for Sam to follow her, and so, Sam did.

Kaia washed up rather quickly and when she came out into the room she could have been another person. The shoes were gone, and so were the pants and long sleeve shirt. In their place, there was a rather short skirt with a rather short shirt to match. O´Neill stared at her, wondering why it was that everytime they celebrated something, this girl seemed to loose more clothes. His whole mind turned blank when he realized he´d seen Kaia give the exact same clothes to Sam, maybe in a different shade of green, but it didn´t matter: O´Neill really doubted he would notice the shade of green. Whatever blank his mind drew kept him pretty busy, because he didn´t actually notice his 2IC until Vozem touched his arm and told him to get up. Sam was already outside and, just as he´d predicted, O´Neill didn´t notice the exact shade of green she was wearing. The moment was short-lived, and before he could get his foot in his mouth, they were told they now had to climb up a mountain, carrying several heavy-looking crates.

The celebration took place on top of the mountain, which was a lake, which was dried up because it wasn´t raining season, which SG-1 didn't really care about. All they heard, was the part about the climbing with heavy boxes. They tried to negotiate their way out of this chore, but it seemed they had misunderstood Kaia when she´d spoken to them. Carrying the crates wasn´t a request, it was an order. It didn't matter how she got them to do it, just that she did.

Fortunately, it wasn´t really so bad. The crates looked heavier than what they really were and the climbing was more like walking up a path. It also wasn´t very far. They got to the top in about fifteen minutes. The sight there was amazing: in the very center, a huge bonfire, the biggest controlled fire any of them had evern seen; the ground, they soon discovered, was made up entirely of nicely rounded light grey stones; almost near enough to get burned to a crisp and in a perfectly round circle, was the food and drink; a few meters farther away, there were several people gathering. They all dropped the crates next to all the other crates and walked towards the people. Kaia seemed thrilled, she´d even forgiven Vozem. Stari, Malinki and Iablaka soon arrived, all of them carrying glasses filled with something. They handed everyone a glass. Iablaka even bowed to SG-1.

"You have proven yourselves. I apologize for my behavior, earlier."

O´Neill took the glass from the girl, suspiciously. It only took him a moment to realize the girl was actually already drunk. He was wondering what kind of celebration this was, he absent mindedly took a sip from his drink. As soon as he swallowed, he realized why the girl had to be drunk. He might as well have of licked one of those alcohol-swabs Dr. Fraser liked so much! He coughed, getting everyone around him to laugh (except Sam, who seemed to have done the exact same thing at the exact same moment and she was busy choking as well). Stari straightened him up and smiled, a big drunken smile.

"You wondered about the purpose of the celebration? We are here because we won a great battle and defeated out enemy. When you assume a greater part of the celebration includes drinking, you are correct."

O´Neill breathed in well enough to ask a question, "Don´t you folks worry about the hangover tomorrow?"

Stari didn´t understand, so Daniel stepped in and quickly described to him what happened to humans if they had to much to drink. Stari laughed, "You are Padeos! Forget this. We are never ill, tomorrow, it will be as if you had slept the entire night. Drink!" Before walking away to get some more drinks, he practically forced Daniel his own drink. After getting the archeologist to choke for a while, he laughed one more time and left. All of SG-1 felt like outsiders, but there was something about the whole celebration, it was like a voice, it was hard to resist. The mental debate stopped for a second as they noticed Teal´c had no drink, they were just about to ask him why it was he´d been left alone when Malinki spoke up. It was strange, because they rarely heard the boy.

"Jaffa do not drink. It is true here and it is true for Teal´c. You, however, are not Jaffa, for this one night, you may forget were you come from. You are Padeos. Celebrate. Tomorrow, you go home, you go back to your planet and back to being humans."

The boy too, was already starting to get drunk. Kaia quickly explained that they were, in fact, several hours late. It wasn´t long before she too walked away, in search of food and drink. Meanwhile, the voice inside Daniel, Sam and O´Neill kept getting louder and louder. They couldn´t get Malinki´s words out of their heads. The boy did have a point. It all seemed pretty harmless and, in any case, they were all responsible adults, it wasn´t as if they´d never had a drink in their entire lives. For a brief second, all three of them realized how much they had changed, they really didn´t care much for whatever rules they had followed in the past. This line of thinking was interrupted though, because Kaia came back with Stari, with more drinks and plenty of food. It wasn´t long before all of their minds were far away from a little voice, the voice that told them to be civil, to remember the SGC, the rules, to be humans from Earth.

The celebration dragged on through the night. Somewhere around what SG-1 imgained had to be midnight, they were surprised as someone came up to mountain towards them. It was Laska and to the inmense surprise of Teal´c, there were three Jaffa after him. This ocassion won two raised eyebrows and a –What in the hell...- from O´Neill. Laska apologized for being so late, and introduced Teal´c to the Jaffa. Apparently, he´d traveled for an entire day just to bring them here, "They also have a right to meet one of their own who came through the Stardoor." The Jaffa were suspicious and looked every which way, half expecting some unknown enemy to jump out. It took a while, but finally, Teal´c managed to calm them down. They spoke a dialiect of Goa´uld but it was not so different from one Teal´c knew so, after a while, they were actually deep in conversation. O´Neill started thinking at that point that maybe he had been drinking a little too freely, he never thought he´d see four Jaffa smiling at the same time. Daniel was fascinated by the whole exchange, and kept staring at them, throwing questions and comment in the air such as, "Who do you think they served originally?"; "Do you think they actually carry symbionts? Maybe they found someway to breed them....."; "Can you imagine the shock? They were here, alone for all they knew, and suddenly, they find that one like them came here."; "What do you suppose they think about the Goa´uld? You suppose they still think their gods?". Daniel rambled on, and finally, it was Malinki and Laska who took pity on him and actually started a conversation. Meanwhile, Sam had loosened up somewhat and was actually trying to explain quantum physics to Kaia, while Kaia tried to explain how it was Bolshoi´s soul had come to rest within her. O´Neill, had he been sober, would of gotten a headache. Both women were off, blabbing and arguing. O´Neill was actually quite fascinated with all that was going on around him, he always wondered what it was exactly the rest of his team had that made them so.....friendly, they could just pick a topic and actually have a conversation with someone about it. O´Neill wasn´t good at being politically correct so he mostly stuck to sarcasm and silence, which worked for him. His musings were interrupted by Vozem, who came up behind Kaia and picked her up, dragging her away for something. Sam stared at the whole event and O´Neill was surprised when she actually broke a smile. He stared at her, confused not so much at what had just happened, but at the fact that Sam found it amusing. She finally noticed him and looked down at her drink, trying to put the smile away. O´Neill just had to know what was going on.

"What´s so funny?" He swallowed, hard, when he noticed he slurred the words a little. Just how much had he had to drink so far?

"I just.....don´t know." That was a surprise! Apparently, a drunken Sam did not hold the answers to life and the universe. Something moved inside O´Neill, he should do something at that moment.....what was it? He should get his team out of there! It was not healthy for them to be drinking so much, they were employees and officers of the USAF not sixteen-year olds!.....No, that wasn´t it. That would be no fun. O´Neill took a sip from his drink and it all became clear to him.....he liked this, he felt good, as if he was free and he was still very curious about Sam not having an answer to a simple question. Yes! That was it! This was a celebration, he should blend in with the locals.....Hell!, he thought, He was one of the locals. With that not-so-logical-conversation in his head being over, the little voice of USAF and regulations´ last fight was over, it had lost. It was gone. Silent. O´Neill skooted over so he was closer to Sam, who was still smiling. He stared at her and finally, she gave in.

"Fine.....I do know! I just.....I don´t know....." She trailed off, taking another drink.

O´Neill was more than a little curious by now, "OK so......what just happened?"

"I think it´s some sort of.....game, I think....." Sam looked down at her feet, concentrating, "It´s a game they play when they´re all drunk."

"OK that makes.....sense."

"It does! They don´t play it sober ´cause it´s.....it had to do with hand-eye coordination and.....betting, they bet something!.....They can´t play it sober ´cause then there would be no point."

This made no sense to O´Neill, until he looked Sam in the eye and he suddenly had all the answers. Palanka. The game was called Palanka. It was played by four or five people. Two had to juggle six cubes filled with shells of some sort back and forth between themselves, two others had to do something in the middle of it all.....some sort of dance or something. When there was a fifth person, he or she had to throw an extra seventh cube to the jugglers randomly. There were three kinds of bets: on the jugglers, the dancers and the fifth man. You could bet how many tosses it would take them to drop a ball and which ball it would be, they were all different colors. You could also bet on who would drop it or if it would be one of the dancers who would send it flying off. The dancers had to actually complete a certain number of steps, without being hit by a cube, so you bet on which cube would hit them, when, where and who it would hit. The fifth guy was hardly ever bet on because all you had to bet on was when he´d throw which color cube at what juggler. This game made no sense to O´Neill, there was no way anyone could place a bet on all those things, it was all random. Suddenly, he realized he was already up and following Sam, who was heading towards the place were the game was already being played. When they arrived they noticed that the jugglers were actually Stari and some other person, a kid, wearing red clothes. In the middle, were Kaia and Vozem. It was strange, but as soon as he saw it, it all made perfect sense to O´Neill. Sam was still hung up on the logic of it. It made no sense. Being that her primary thought, she started saying so.

"This is.....amazing. Do you realize what the chaces are of winning a bet? They´re.....one over a.....big number. It makes no sense it-"

O´Neill interrupted her, "It´s fun. I think that´s all the point. They don´t even bet any real money, only round stones with holes in them."

"That makes no sense. What´s the point?"

"No point just.....fun."

Another voice came from behind Sam, cutting off her argument.

"Jack is right. It is simply fun. Fun to watch and fun to play, it takes years to master it enough to play." Iablaka smiled at them. She was very drunk for sure, she actually seemed to like them.

This time, it was O´Neill who interrupted her, "So how does it work?"

Iablaka called over a small boy, maybe six years old. He carried a bag, filled with the stones, Iablaka put one into the bag and looked at O´Neill. He had no idea what to say, he stared at the game, pretending he was looking at something important. Sam stared at him, still completely convinced it was practically impossible to bet and win. O´Neill´s vision went out of focus and all he saw suddenly were six different colored points, then he saw it, he knew what would happen.

"The purple one´s gonna hit that kid over the head."

The boy bowed down and went back to were he´d been standing before. Sam stared at O´Neill, who only shrugged at her.

"What? It´s worth a shot....."

"Actually, it´s not. The posibilites of you being right are-"

"One over a big number?"

Sam smiled, "Yes."

"OK, it´s a good thing I didn´t bet two stones then."

Sam smiled again and was about to say something when something happened. The purple cube hit the kid square in the head. Everything stopped. Stari seemed proud to have hit the kid, the kid looked pissed, Vozem and Kaia were laughing so hard they could barely stand up straight and O´Neill gloated over Sam, who could not believe what had just happened. Before Sam had a chance to argue the point that the chances of that happening were one over a big number again, O´Neill took her glass and went to get another drink. He was just waiting to get them when Daniel came over to him, he looked concerned.

"Hi Jack."

"Daniel."

"So ah.....having a good time?"

"It´s OK." He shrugged his shoulders.

Daniel took a deep breath and cleared his throat, "Hey, ah, listen, Jack do you notice anything, I don´t know.....strange, going on?"

O´Neill really didn´t want to have this converstaion right now, he decided it was best if it was a short and quick thing, "What do you want, Daniel?"

"Well to be quite honest with you....." Daniel crossed and uncrossed his arms several times, O´Neill rolled his eyes, getting impatient, "OK ah.....I was just kinda wondering what´s going on."

"Going on where?"

"Well uhm.....you know, going on between you and ah....." He looked over at Sam, who was still watching the game but was having a discussion with Iablaka about it. O´Neill looked over at her, it was something about where the game had come from.....he was interrupted by Daniel´s voice, "I mean you two were just standing there and uhm.....it just looked like....."

"Like we were over there?" O´Neill hoped that would shut Daniel up. It did, but he still gave him a look. O´Neill rolled his eyes, "What´s your point?"

"My point? You´re not serious, are you? I mean, what about when we get home?"

"What about it?"

"Look it´s just that you know how it is.....and it seems like for the past couple of days something happened between the two of you and I´m just wondering if you realize what´s at stake here."

"Daniel, were not even on base."

"That´s my point exactly I mean, think about, Jack....." O´Neill rolled his eyes again but Daniel wasn´t about to let this go, "Look I only bring it up because I think it has something to do with this place, with whatever was done to us. I just don´t want you getting home to a court martial appointment."

"Now see? That makes no sense at all. Who´s gonna tell ´em? How would they find out?"

"Tell them? Jack I don´t think you realize what you´re saying! It´s not about them finding out or not-"

"Damn it, Daniel! Look, do you look like my mother?"

Daniel was confused, but decided to go with it anyway, "Ah.....I hope not."

"My father?"

"No, I think."

"Any close relative? Distant cousin? Neighbor?"

"No."

"And do I look sixteen?"

"No."

"Like a complete idiot."

"I suppose not."

"Then would you mind keeping out of what is, clearly, none of your business."

"I´m just worried about you, about the both of you. I don´t want you to get home tomorrow and realize you made some sort of big mistake or realize that you weren´t in complete control or-"

"Daniel, please, please listen very carefully. Whatever you could possibly conjure up in that little head of yours, you´re wrong."

He started to walk away, but Daniel was, as usual, being his stubborn self, "I´m just really worried, Jack. Don´t take it the wrong way, but I think this is my business."

"Why is that?"

"Because you and Sam are my friends."

"OK.....if we´re your friends, why don´t you show a little trust then?"

"That´s my point.....something´s going on here, Jack. We´ve changed, all of us. That´s what worries me, all of a sudden, I.....I came here because I´m worried about what´ll happen when you´re caught, not about the rules. It´s like I just woke up this morning and a lot of rules we live by seemed pretty stupid to me. That´s what worries me, Jack. Don´t you see it?"

O´Neill stopped. Daniel did have a point, sort off, "Look, by tomorrow afternoon we´ll be gone, everything will be back to normal I just.....don´t think it´s worth worrying so much."

"But doesn´t that bother you?"

"Yeah it does, a lot. There´s nothing I can do about it right now though so....."

"Why worry?"

"Exactly."

He walked away. This time, Daniel didn´t follow. O´Neill didn´t look back, but he was a little worried. He got back and handed Sam the glass. For a second, he wondered.....

"Hey ah.....Iablaka, what´s in this stuff anyway?"

Iablaka looked at Jack as if he was asking her to explain why the universe existed, "Fruit.....why do you ask?"

"You don´t add anyting to it, any –special- ingredients?"

"No." Iablaka looked over at Sam, who started looking very worried. The girl suddenly turned back to O´Neill, a look of relief on her face, "You are worried this is the reason for your change in behavior." O´Neill said nothing, he didn´t need to, "It is not. You are very complex people. Your minds have many, many layers: what you know, what you feel, what you think, what the world knows of you, what strangers know of you, what feelings you let others see.....When you became Padeos, everything we are and know and believe and feel was put into your minds but because you yourselves do not even realize all that goes on in your minds and hearts, there is great conflict within you. You are being forced to comfront many thoughts you did not even know existed in you mind and that has changed you, greatly."

"OK.....is it normal?"

"Yes. The difference is that you were not raised to be Padeos, you were simply made one. Your mind was not prepared."

"Don´t ya think a little warning would have been wise?"

"We did not know this would happen. We did not understand you, we still do not. You must find balance between your heart and mind, but only in the heart do the answers truly lie." Iablaka noticed both Sam and O´Neill were confused, "Simply put, you must come to terms with all you think and feel. I do not know if what was done to you will be temporary, it seems to be that way because you are no less powerfull than any other here but, in the time it takes for you to change back to normal, you must find balance."

Iablaka would of continued, but Vozem and Kaia came over. It was someone else´s turn to play the game. Kaia stopped smiling as soon as she came close to them. She knew. Sam looked at her, somehow, she´d come to trust this girl for practically everything in the time since they´d first met. Vozem was completely clueless about what was going on, and promptly started teasing Iablaka about something or other that was going on between her and Malinki. Kaia rolled her eyes but quickly turned her attention back to Sam, "I had hoped your minds would be at peace tonight."

"Well you were wrong."

"You have no need to be hostile towards me, Jack. Iablaka is right, you must find balance." Neither Sam nor O´Neil said anything, "Many of your rules are.....illogical, unnecesary to my way of thinking. I know this is the biggest problem you have but the problem does not lie within the rules themselves, but within your feelings. You spend so much time thinking about the rule itself that you have forgotten all the feelings that led you to hate it. The rule is not the problem, and the solution would not be to ignore it." Still, Sam and O´Neill said nothing, "If you truly wish no know what I recommend: let it go. Do not think or question your feelings or the rules." At that moment, Iablaka hit Vozem. She´d had enough of his teasing. Kaia turned to help him up and suggested they go get something to drink. Before leaving, she turned to O´Neill, "I was not wrong. Up until now, your minds were at peace. You were here and you were happy and, it was not the end of the world."

After she left, Iablaka started going on about why men were so annoying. Sam had to admit, she was a nice person. It took a while, but Sam found herself gradually falling deeper and deeper into conversation with the girl. In the back of her mind she realized Kaia was right, the best thing to do was to stop worrying, it seemed to work. Another couple of hours and the whole event was practically forgotten. Daniel joined them, at first eyeing his two teamates, but Kaia said something to him and he too, started to relax. Teal´c was still too busy with the other Jaffa to have of even noticed what had happened. Once more, the voices of their past selves were pushed to the back of their minds only this time, they felt good about it.


	20. Lost

"Sir, do you have any idea where we´re going?"

"Well.....we´re defenately going down."

"Are you lost?"

"No.....maybe. I might be a little disoriented."

"Disoriented? You have no idea where we are, do you?"

"Look, it´s not that big a mountain, we can´t be far off."

"How do you figure?"

"Well when we came up we got there pretty fast, right? And we´ve been walking a while so.....we can´t be far off."

"Maybe we should go back."

"You don´t have much faith in me, do you?"

"It´s not about faith, sir, it´s about the fact that you don´t know where we are."

"Tell me something, Carter, how many drinks did it take you to get to insubordination?"

"With all due respect, I don´t think I´m being insubordinate, we´re lost."

"Is that really so bad?"

"Well, it depends on where we´ll end up."

"I´m sure someone will notice we´re gone and come look for us."

"I´m not so sure, did you see everyone up there? They´ll be lucky if they can put one foot in front of the other."

"Right well.....it´s not so bad, is it?"

"Maybe you should let me lead."

Oh god no! No. No. No. No. No. Not in those close you´re not. Quick, say something!, "Ah.....maybe we should just keep going....." Oh yeah, that helped! Well, it wasn´t so bad, right? For a drunken man and all. Wait what the hell is she doing? Don´t do that! Well say something you idiot!, "Carter, did I not just tell you not to move?"

See Sam? You see, you see?!? I told you not to move. Now, not only are you following this very drunk man being very drunk yourself, but you are lost and on top of it all you´re in front. Isn´t this comfortable?, "No you didn´t, sir. You said we should keep going."

Way to go, Jack! It´s not so bad, just keep going, keep your eyes down.....on the ground! OK, this is not going to work, just, get in front of her. How? Right! Get her to stop, "Hey, Carter....." Now wasn´t that smart of ya? Now she´s just standing there, staring. Standing. Staring. Now, when you walk, you make sure you walk past. No. No! Past her, past her. "Maybe you´re right. We might be lost."

Understatement of the year! Oh god.....I´ve been hanging around him for too long. So, Sam, say something intelligent. Something un-drunk like. Does that word even exist? Sam? This is the part where you say something. Sam?, "Yeah." Well that was eloquent!

Now is the part where you say we should go back and a killer werewolf comes out of the trees and eats you! Oh I be any drunker? Allright, just concentrate on going back up and this time, make sure YOU lead, "Maybe we shoud go back."

Go back? Go back. Yes. Go back. It´ll be safe there! Lots and lots of people staring at you, or at least, there. Not like here. Everything´s so quiet so isolated. Hey, Sam! How about you at least agree with him. Nod your head, mumble something! Oh....you will regret this in the morning, I know you will. Weren´t you just telling me off a few days ago? What happened to all of that! I know I told you you´d have to listen to me eventually but I didn´t really think it would be this soon. Sam, you can´t breath. Sam! Just open your mouth and let the words come out, "Yeah.....maybe."

OK she´s agreed......sort off. Just turn around. Good! And start walking back up the hill-mountain-thing. Good. Going up and up and up. Good. Good. In silence. Everything here is so quiet. What the hell?, "Uhm....Carter? Wasn´t there only one path when we came down?"

I can´t believe this! Sam, did you not notice these three different paths when you came down? You really have to get your act together, Sam. You haven´t been this drunk in.....never! Sam?, "Uh.....maybe."

Oh great! She´d drunk. You´re drunk. You´re both lost! Just great. This is just peachy, "Maybe? Didn´t you see where we were going?"

How dare he! He´s the one who led you down here! Come on, Sam, say something!, "Well I wasn´t the one leading." Good! Now, keep in mind you´re drunk and on a mountain side, so don´t try to storm off. OK......OK.....no, no. Wait! What are you doing? Oh.....sitting! Good. Well, better than storming off.

What the hell-?, "Carter?"

Sam, stop it. Stop it, Sam. You really have no need to do this, he´s just as bad as you are. Sam?, "I´m thinking."

Good. That´ll solve it. Carter can have brilliant ideas while sober, you can just sit here next to her hoping that Carter can have half-decent ideas while drunk. "Think away....."

Does he have to do that? Come on, Sam! Concentrate on getting back to the people, not on how he just practically sat on you. There you go! That´s good, Sam. Now just say it out loud, "I´m pretty sure it´s that way."

Well, pretty sure is better than being completely lost, right?, "Pretty sure?"

I hate it when he does that. Don´t you, Sam? It´s that look, what is it? I don´t know. Sam? Sam? OK, I´m sorry I mentioned –the look-! Sam!, "I´m sure."

This is the time to say something leader-like, Jack. "OK." Wrong thing.

Sam? What about the rest? You know you have to get back to people, at least down to the cave! Sam?, "Also, when we first came up we were on the North face of the mountain and I think this is the South face. If I remember correctly we also passed a path heading East, if we follow that, we might get back to the North path."

She really doesn´t even sound drunk at all! How does she do that? I don´t think it´s ´cause she´s had practice..... "OK. Let´s go."

He really doesn´t look drunk at all, except he slurrs the words sometimes but it could just be in my head. Uh, Sam? You might wanna move right about now, he´s kinda leaving without you. Sam? Sam? Uh-oh, not good.

Great! This is great! In just a few minutes we´ll be back to civilization, to people. It´s so quiet here. Not to wear out the cliché but a little too quiet. What the-? Where the hell is she?, "Carter?"

There you go, see? Happy? Now he´s gone and realized you´re not behind him. I bet he´ll be all worried and the like, giving you all kinds of looks you pretend you don´t know what they mean but you do and you, in fact, enjoy it when push comes to shove and he´s worried about you and gives you does looks.....uh, Sam? What the hell? What are you laughing for? You were concieving your drunkedness so well! What happened? Sober up! Too late.....

OK maybe I rushed into things when I said she wasn´t drunk. Wait. That´s not what I said. I said she didn't sound drunk. Right. Oh well, "Carter? You OK?" Stupid question! She´d obviously not missing any limbs or anything.....

There! See! The look! And don´t go pretending this time it´s only ´cause he´s drunk, ´cause it´s not! Now you see what you´ve gone and done. He´s sitting down again. It was all going so well, you really need to get back to people. Get back home. I´m all for the whole "no-rules" attitude but.....doesn't this make you a little nervous, Sam? Guess not. Probably too drunk to notice, "Sir, why are we here?"

OK I just hope to God this isn´t Carter getting all philosophical on me. Not a good subject for me, most of the time, "Here? You mean sitting in the middle of a forest?"

Did he just seriously think it was a philosophical question? That was amusing at least, right Sam? You´re both way to drunk to be getting philosophical right now, right?, "Technically, I think it´s the side of a mountain, sir."

Well that´s good! Well then the question is simple enough, "Carter, we´re lost."

Really? I hadn´t noticed!.....Oh god, I´ve been hanging around him too long, "I know but why are we here?"

OK I take it back, she does sound a little drunk, "We were trying to get back to the cave."

Really? I dunno, Sam. It all seems sorta suspicious, "Why?"

OK I really don´t like this phase of Carter-drunk, can´t she just go back to knowing everything?, "Because I wanted to check on Daniel."

Oh right! Daniel! You remember, Sam? He got a little too drunk when Koshka bet him he couldn´t hold his licor. You warned him not to do it. So did Jack, I mean, the Colonel! Damn it......anyway, back to Daniel. He dropped unconscious, he drank himself to sleep! It was pretty funny, actually. No it wasn´t! Sam? You getting any of this? Sam?, "Right....."

Still not liking this. What is going on here? It was all going fine, just fine. So we were a little lost. At least we weren´t sitting down. Alone. Down. Alone. Everything is just so quiet out here, "You sure you´re OK?"

Peachy! Oh god.....not again. Sam! Please, Sam, come back to the world of the sober! Your head doesn´t do too well without your obssesive controlling and constant thinking in numbers. Sam?, "I´m fine. I´m just....."

Starting to get a little worried. She looks well enough, but is she really? It´s probably just the bieng drunk with her superior and lost in the middle of the forest thing..... "Look, maybe we should try to get back....."

Is that a hint of nervousness I detect in his voice? I don´t like it when he gets nervous. It means one thing: I´m getting awfully close to proving my point. Maybe it´s not such a good idea when you´re both drunk and off world. I mean, maybe if you were just drunk or just off world, but the both of them. Together. Not good, "I was just thinking....." Big fat lie! Big fat lie! You were not! You´re basking in all that you had to drink! Unless I wasn´t paying attention and you weren´t just ignoring me because you´re drunk but because you´re thinking.....and drunk. Sam?, "We´re going home tomorrow."

A big part of me is not liking were this is going, "Yeah, that´s the idea."

Are you sure you want to do this, Sam?, "I just.....I guess I find it kinda hard to believe."

Well I can certainly understand that. What is it with this planet? It feels like years since we´ve been home, months since I´ve thought about the SGC....., "Yeah, I know." And as usual, way to go!

Sam? I think I know were this is going. Don´t! You know how I´m always telling you you have to face up to certain "issues", I take it back! Graciously side-step the issue! Sam?, "I just.....I guess I was thinking about what Kaia said."

Oh, right....., "Oh, right....."

Well there´s just no taking it back now! Sam?, "I just.....everything is just so different here."

Avoid it! Avoid it!, "Oh yeah I mean, the trees are just such a different shade of green."

Why does he do that? How does he do that? Why are you smiling? He´s avoiding it! Sam?, "I just.....everything seems to work so well here."

Avoid it! Avoid it!, "Yeah but, Daniel did have a point.....we don´t belong here....." Damn it! What am I doing? Am I seriously doing this? Apparently so.

Why is he not avoiding this? Sam?, "I know. I guess I´m , or something."

Damn it!, "Well-.....I ah-.....it´s just that usually I´m the one confused." Finally! Nice and gracefull.

Sam?, "Yeah but.....I think she had a point, about the to terms part."

It´s really, really quiet out here, "Yeah, I know but, I don´t know. Maybe right now it´s just, not really the time....."

Sam?, "Right."

Really quiet out here, "Maybe we should just.....get outta here."

Sam!, "Right."

Quiet. Wait.....she´s not moving. Oh, damn it! Now she´s pissed. See what you do? If you´d just avoided this from the beginning and dragged her outta here..... "Look, what do you want me to say?"

Sam? Just don´t do anything-"Well I don´t know! But at least.....something!"

Not good. Now don´t do anything-"Well I can´t! Jeez, what the hell do you want from me?"

"I don´t know!"

"Then what´s the problem here! Why don´t you call me when you know what you want?!?"

"So you do, what? Avoid it again? I don´t understand why you do this!"

"Because I have to! Because I can´t say anything. Don´t you get that! It would mean my career and yours."

"Oh right! Because we have such perfect military records! Wouldn´t want to ruin that!"

"It´s not about that! You could loose everything. Do you understand that, everything!"

"Don´t you think that choice should be up to me?"

"No, I don´t!"

"Really? Well it´s not like you have any right in my life, is it?"

"Look, I am your commanding officer-"

"Don´t you dare bring that into this."

"Don´t I dare? It´s not like it has nothing to do with it!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

The silence had been broken. It wasn´t just outside. Inside too. So many thoughts and feelings went through both of them so quickly it would have been hard to catch a glimpse of one. O´Neill walked away, with every intention of leaving Sam there. He couldn´t believe how angry that woman made him. Sam sat back down and stared at the trees, they really were a different shade of green.....

"Jack....." She didn´t even know why she called out to him. It´s not like she had anything to say to him, did she?

A voice in his head told him to keep going. It wasn´t wise to complicate things like this. He was never a very wise man. He walked back, Sam looked up at him, "Look, Sam it´s just that.....I know it should be your choice but....." That was about as much as he was going to say. He shrugged his shoulders but he didn´t stop looking at her, for one second, she heard him, in her head. He smiled weakly. She stood up.

"We should try to get back."

He nodded his head. He waited until they´d gone five steps before saying something, "Maybe we should do this again, sometime. It was kinda.....liberating and stuff."

Sam looked back at him. She rolled her eyes at him and smiled. She waited for him to catch up to her. After that, they walked side by side, and a lot closer than what their bosses would of liked.


	21. Morning after

The first thing he noticed when he opened his eyes was that his head didn´t hurt at all, the second, that it was morning. He could hear someone moving around just outside the entrance, there was a fire going on somewhere and food, lots and lots of food. He figured he was pretty hungry, just having spent the night he had. What had come over him? For a moment he remembered something similar. What was it? He couldn´t shake the feeling that they´d been in a similar situation before, but where? He shrugged it off, if he couldn´t remember, it must not have of been so important, besides: he was hungry and (amazingly enough), not hungover. He streched ungracefully and rolled out of bed, much like a fish flapping around uselessly on a dock. When he did manage to get to his feet and get his bearings, he saws something that made him loose all composture, grace and.....any other thought going through his head at the moment.

"What the hell.....?"

He couldn´t help it. It was unavoidable. Half of him burst with curiousity, the other with.....well he couldn´t quite place the feeling, but it didn´t stop him from staring! The important thing to understand here, at least in his mind, was that the beds they´d been given weren´t really very big, one person fit just fine, but two was pushing it. He shook his head, what the hell was he thinking? Right! He wasn´t! He was a little too stunned by the sight of Ja-

"DanielJackson."

He jumped out of his skin. Well at least he didn´t yelp in panic.....he turned, quickly, kinda hoping Teal´c wouldn´t notice what was directly behind him but, for whatever reasons Life has, Daniel couldn´t really keep it from the Jaffa. It was evident in his face that he didn´t fully understand: first, he stepped closer, not loosing his almost smile he showed most mornings; second, it fell when he realized what, or better yet, who they were staring at; third, he looked over at Daniel (who promptly shrugged and mumbled something like "Don´t look at me....."); finally, he turned back to the scene and raised both eyebrows as someone stirred, he finished his shock by leaning his head, ever so slightly, to the right.

Daniel noticed the movement too. He grabbed Teal´c by the arm and suggested they talk about it outside. Teal´c half nodded, never taking his eyes off the two people he stared at, he walked back down and outside with Daniel. Once outside, Daniel couldn´t help but take very deep, deep breaths. Teal´c still stared at the entrance, he had not been this confused in a while.

"DanielJackson, is not that kind of relationship forbidden according to your military?"

Daniel took a final deep breath and stared at the Jaffa, he hadn´t actually considered that yet, "Well.....as a general rule yeah, it is."

"And is not the breaking of this law cause enough even for expulsion from the military?"

"Yeah, I guess....."

"I see."

Daniel stared at Teal´c. He hadn´t absorbed it enough yet to be thinking about consequences back home, all he wanted right now was to just forget it. Some part of him knew this issue would be confronted, eventually, but for now, he felt it was just better to leave it be, not mention it to anybody, and hope he could keep ignoring it, even when they got back home. He was a little bothered by this, but he suddenly realised that it wasn't really his business at all! He couldn´t possibly make decisions in place of his friends. With that he was satisfied. He wouldn´t tell anybody now, he just had to make sure Teal´c agreed. He went up to the Jaffa, smiling, "Hey, Teal´c, can I talk to you for a moment?"

Why is it that when you´re drunk you think the stupidest idea is the most brilliant proposal you will ever hear in your life? Truth is, drunk logic only makes sense drunk, so there is no answer that´ll be satisfactory to any sober person. That´s why most hungover or recently drunk people will never argue what they did or did not do, say or think. There is still, however, the issue of the uncomfortable silence you find yourself in when you know you were drunk, you know you did something stupid (it´s even worse when you realize what) and you walk into a room with someone else, who at least believes, knows what it was you did. Keeping this in mind, O´Neill tried to sneak outside and away from Daneil and Teal´c. His less than gracefull awakening had woken him up, but he´d pretended to still be out simply for the sake of it. He did not feel like explaining his actions to anyone, except himself. The solitude he´d hoped to find in the treeline seemed to just not want to be found. He sat down and leaned against a rather big tree, knowing full well no one would see him there. He was just starting to argue with himself when he heard something, or rather, someone.

He raised his head and stood. He could just make them out, but he knew very well who it was. Vozem and Kaia were coming up the side of the hill, cothes completely disheveled and looking more than a bit sleepless. As soon as they saw him they stopped, Vozem looked up at the sky as if something were really up there, Kaia simply pulled on his arm and kept on walking. When they were close enough, O´Neill was the first to speak.

"Have fun?"

Kaia smiled and Vozem turned a deep shade of purple, "Yes. We meant to be back earlier but we were lost."

O´Neill was more than a little shocked, "You got lost?"

"Yes. When you drink too much, every tree looks the same....." Kaia shrugged. She said nothing else, neither did O´Neill. She kept on walking. O´Neill looked after her. She knew. She´d seen it. He had wanted her too. He felt he could trust her with anything.

Kaia had said nothing because there was simply nothing to say. Whatever choice Sam or Jack made was not up to her. She knew this was a big problem. Looking back on it, maybe it hadn´t been such a good idea to leave them alone the night before, but she was not babysitter! She laughed inwardly at the concept, which did not exist for the Padeos but she´d come to understand it through Daniel. It amused her. She cleared her head of such thoughts. Despite the fact that last night everything and everyone had been relaxed, all that the morning had brought was more stress. Arulo would announce his wish for the Chitnika to serve the humans, and then Kaia would have to make a choice. She could either submit, or fight for her people. She wanted to do neither, not because she didn´t care for her people, but because she´d sworn to always protect humans, never harm them. Going against them would mean she would have to turn her back on this. But what weighed heavier on her mind at that moment was getting SG-1 back home. They would leave in a couple of hours,and would be home by the time the sunset.


	22. Home again

They´d been walking for a good long while. Silence. They hadn´t even stopped for a rest all morning. Silence. The scenery didn´t change much, just trees. Silence. It was all very uncomfortable.

It wasn´t just the fact that all of SG-1 had decided to ignore "the obvious awkward situation arising from that morning", but that it was suddenly dawning on them: they were on their way home. It was quite a shock. It had only been a few days, and, except for the whole "war thing", nothing much had happened. Their clothes were lost, their weapons were gone, they depended entirely on strangers for their survival. Even so, not one of them minded being there, it was the place, the people. Daniel was sorry he hadn´t been able to learn more about them and their culture. He was the only one with a half reasonable reason to want to stay, all the others simply didn´t want to leave. Even Teal´c was sorry: he´d found Jaffa who were free of the false gods. This intrigued him, he wished he´d been able to learn more about them.

----

Pain. Incredible amounts of it. That was the last thought she could remember before plunging into the light. Something pulled, she thought. The came out somewhere else, cold, hurt. She fell down on the hard floor, she looked at a room full of humans, all ready to kill her should she even move. Before she passed into darkness she felt fear. Her master was calling. He was hurt too, and was coming to protect them both.....

---

The strange thing was that it was uncomfortable for everyone else. She sure didn´t feel she´d done anything wrong. Maybe getting drunk and lost in a strange forest on an alien planet wasn´t too good an idea, but she couldn´t say it was more than a stupid mistake. She still dreaded the thought of if though, because no one back home would be so understanding.

-----

No matter how many things had been seen at the SGC, a dragon in the Gate room topped them all. It even growled. It´s eyes glared. It seemed to have come from the girl who lay perfectly still on the ramp. She was bleeding. Another young girl was at her side, looking scared, but not of all the men pointing guns at her. Scared for the life of the other. SG-1 was completely out of control. Teal´c kept screaming to put down all the weapons, Daniel had already fainted, O´Neill was bleeding but seemed more concerned with some noise and Sam covered her ears, also asking not to fire. It was all over within thirty seconds, but it was enough for O´Neill to colapse, for Teal´c to glare at a lot of young soldiers, for Daniel to regain consciousness only to cover his ears, for Sam to try to get O´Neill to stay awake, and for the other two girls to almost be ignored.

-----

Gyffins were some of the most extraordinarily paranoid creatures O´Neill had ever met. They´d been standing at the entrance of a large stone building for nearly three hours before they were allowed inside, and only so far as the end of the hall. There they waited for a few more hours. Kaia spoke in a hushed voice to two old men who had been standing there, waiting for them. Then the men disappeared and Kaia sat down on the floor, in silence. When the door to their right was finally opened, O´Neill had been half asleep. They were made to walk quickly and silently down a series of hallways. All of them looked the same. Finally, they came to a very, very large door. It was swung open with difficulty and beyond it stood a Stargate. The gyffins wasted no time. They simply asked for the address, dialed and waited for SG-1 to walk through. It did not go at all the way they´d planned.

----

Kaia had never seen a Stargate working before. She was impressed. She wondered how it worked and why, but sadly discarded the questions from her mind: those answers were not meant for her. The gyffins had agreed to let them use the Stargate, but it had to be quick. She stood in front of SG-1 and smiled. She wondered how long it would take for them to return to normal. She sensed they were in no hurry for that to happen. She sensed a lot of things. Some of them worried her. They were too reckless, to much like children. They saw the world in a whole new way, but were unwilling to accept the fact that it was not going to last for ever and that it was not the way things were looked at back home. Kaia was about to say something when there was a noise. A smell of smoke. The distinctive prescence of Aurulo and then pain. Kaia realized immediately what had happened. They´d been followed, they´d been caught. She´d been shot. O´Neill pushed her and Koshka into the wall of water. It was an accident, he´d meant to get them down but he was shot too. The rest of SG-1 was unceremoniously pushed inside by Vozem and Stari, while the rest of the room was fighting the humans who´d come to kill them all.

----

Medical assistance on Earth was definately primitive. Everything had to be applied through the veins, which meant needles and complex apparatus and the rist of infections. There were about three or four people working on a single person, not at all efficient in a combat situation. The medications were flawed, they would put you to sleep when they were meant to stop the pain, made you sick when you were supposed to sleep and it hurt. The worse part was the noise. So much noise in so little a room. There were beeps and ringing and scratching and breathing and scraping and tinkling...medical assitance on Earth was very primitive.

Koshka lay awake and annoyed on the little and uncomfortable bed. Her thoughts were not very pleasant. Everything was quiet compared to earlier on, although there was still too much noise for her liking. She closed her eyes and concentrated on finding the noise. It came from a lot of places but over all, there was a buzzing and it was from a series of pipies that went all over the base. She wished she had the telepathic powers of any Padeos at that moment, she didn´t know what it was but she wanted to, so that she could block it out of her mind. She had figured that one of the beeping noises came from a machine on her right, which was, for the Light´s side´s no obvious reason, attached to her. She had managed to ignore that nosie already. There was some sort of machine which sounded like it was breathing, but she didn´t know what it was yet. Someone came in the room. Koshka lay still, pretended to be asleep. That was the third time someone had done that and Koshka figured she had another while before anyone came into the room again. This was the moment. After the person left, she sat up and quietly and quickly, she got rid of all the needles sticking into her (which in truth was only one BUT it seemed like more), yanked off whatever it was that was stuck to her chest and concentrated. She felt warm again, her perspective change, she took comfort in her claws and in her sharp triangular ears, her coat was all black and that made her feel safe. She shook her entire body before stretching her back. She needed to find Kaia, she´d been badly wounded, and the medicine they´d given her had probably done nothing for her. It didn´t take long.

----

Eventually, even Sam had passed out. It had happened on their way to the infirmary. She had been unable to do much of anything except cover her ears, she was eventually put in a strecher and when she insisted on not being still she´d been restrained. That´s when she´d passed out. She was still out, several hours later. Her breathing was deep, slow, and her her heart and pulse were completely normal. There had been blood work done and there had been nothing unusual there. But something was wrong. All the machines and equipment seemed to have static interference. They had been checked, but nothing was wrong, in fact, as soon as they were taken out of the room, they were fine. Janet concluded that it was SG-1 and the two girls who were generating the interference, but she couldn´t say why. She´d been trying to figure it out for about three hours when suddenly she was paged. She ran out of her office to the infirmary. No one. She heard a commotion down the hall, without thinking, she ran towards it.

One of the young girls was holding Sam up by the shoulders. She was talking to her. Sam had her eyes closed and kept trying to cover her ears. The girl kept pushing her against the wall. Daniel was sitting down on the floor, apparently passed out, although he was sitting a little too straight for someone who´s unconscious. That was not the worst part. Janet noticed something else: there were five armed soldiers, obviously after the girl, but they were getting the hell beat out of them by...something. It stopped for a second, it looked like a big cat. Black and with strangely long ears and tail. After all the soldiers lay on the floor, it turned on Dr. Fraser who did not move. She didn´t know what was going on but she knew enough to understand that if she moved or did anything that might seem a threat she would end up no better than the men on the floor. She took a deep breath and looked down at the beaten bodies. She made a choice.

"These men are hurt." Her voice shook a little bit more than what she would´ve liked but it seemed to work. At the same moment that Sam was put down on the floor, considerably calmer, the girl turned and spoke.

"Koshka...ea tam na ij nibla."

The cat-like creature sat back and took a deep breath....and turned into the second girl. Janet would have passed out from the mere shock if she wasn´t so worried about the others. The recently transformed girl got up and looked down at the men and at Janet. Without a word she simply went back to Daniel, and helped him up.

----

A voice inside their heads had called to them. It promised them silence. They had not hesitated to go to it. To the outside world they seemed passed out, but they were very much awake inside their minds. It was a strange way of being and soon both Daniel and Sam understood it was some sort of defence mechanism. They were being protected from all the noise which was, quite literally, killing them. It had been strange, all the noise piercing and tearing appart their brains. Daniel had passed out the same instant he´d been back, Sam had fought it for a bit, but she understood it would kill her. She didn´t know how, she just did.

Daniel had been the first one up. He smelled something. Strong and interesting. He wanted to go to the smell. The voice warned him of the dangers of the noise, but the scent was too much. He opened his eyes, and was back in hell again. This time there was company, though: Kaia. She pressed her hands against his ears and spoke to him in his head. It was all he could do to keep his eyes open. Kaia told him to go to the noises, to find them, to separate them. He did. There was the buzzing from the electricity, there was the beeping of the machines and a high pitch ring from...the security cameras. One by one Daniel heard them all, completely, from the first pitch to the last buz. They were all units of noise in his mind. He pictured himself putting them in a sack and throwing them to the back of his mind. One sack for every noise and one by one they began to fade. He knew they were still there but, somehow, he´d managed to mask them. When he opened his eyes he was sweating. He was tired. Kaia smiled at him and let go of his head. The noises were gone.

Sam was a lot more difficult. Her mind kept identifying the noised but she could do nothing more than simply listen to them. There were to many, Kaia said. She took them out to the hall. There were about five noises less, but it would have to do. Sam kept slipping back into her mind, Kaia kept shaking and pushing her awake. Sam could concentrate on nothing more than the noise. When the soldiers came she wanted to give up. Kaia would not have it. They needed to learn to control their minds and their senses. For a second Kaia knew it was not so bad that she was thrown into this world by mistake. If she had not been there, they would be dead already. Koshka kept the soldiers away but there was one person they did not expect: the doctor. Koshka thought little of her and Kaia didn´t know what to think. Kaia noticed the doctor wasn´t moving a muscle. At least she understood the situation, that made her smart. Possibly and ally. Sam cared a great deal about her. They were good friends. Finally, Sam got a hold of herself. She was sweating heavily. Kaia let her down on the floor. Daniel was sitting very still and very calm throughout all this. It was good. They barely had enough energy or will left to open their eyes. Kaia was not much better off. She turned to Koshka and told her to leave the doctor alone, she was no threat. Koshka turned back to her human shape. The doctor was shocked, but there were hurt people so she put it aside and got to them. Another comendable thing, thought Kaia. Koshka helped Daniel up and Kaia, Sam. They needed food. They headed straight towards it.

----

Teal´c was sitting silently in his room. He wasn´t doing much of anything, simply sitting. Part of his mind found this curious, but most of it found it calming. He suddenly heard a scream. It was Kaia. She was looking for him. He saw her. A hallway. There were several armed officers in front of them. She was holding Sam up, who did not look good. Koshka was ready to attack, so was Kaia. Teal´c got up and ran to them. He was allowed to get to them. He turned around and asked that they put their weapons down. The young soldiers seemed confused and would not obey. Kaia and Koshka, carrying Sam and Daniel, got behind him. Teal´c walked straight ahead. As he thought, no one took a shot. They walked slowly and relatively unhindered towards the mess hall. A few people were there, but they all stood up and stood still as soon as Teal´c and the others came in. Kaia put Sam down on a bench, Daniel was in front of her. Kaia looked at one or two people and knew what she had to do. She went and got all the food she needed. She was impressed how poorly fed they all were. She needed three times as much food as usual simply to get Daniel to respond. She managed to get her hands on two glasses of water and reached into her bag (which had graciously been recovered by Koshka) and put a bluish-pink powder in. At this precise moment, the doctor came in. She went past all the armed soldiers and sat down next to Sam. She touched her shoulder. It was cold and she didn´t really respond. Koshka seemed ready to leap at her, but one word from Kaia and she sat back down. Kaia reached across the table and touched the doctors arm, she turned to her.

"Janet...I am only trying to help them. They were dying. You cannot understand this."

Janet wondered how it was this girl new her name but soon realized it didn´t matter. The girl put the galss with the strange colored water in Sam´s hand and said something to her. Something in a language Janet didn´t understand. Sam looked down at the glass. Kaia smiled and said something else. Sam managed a weak smile and drank the liquid in the glass. Across the table, Daniel was doing the same thing. They finished the entire glass and they immediately started looking better. They lost all the palor, they were no longer cold to the touch, and Sam even managed to look over at Janet and seem confused. Kaia pushed them to eat all that was before them. They obeyed.

Janet was more than a bit shocked and confused. Daniel and Sam obeyed the girl without question. She looked over at her and she smiled. It was a smile she could trust.


	23. Healed

O´Neill was still sharing a bed with death. Southrons were mean people, but they were not stupid. They had learned much from the Goa´uld in the past, and they had managed to aquire some of their technology, mostly weapons. Most of these had been aquired after the Goa´uld had left, in raids the Southrons had been responsible for on the remaining Jaffa. They had taken all their weapons apart, studied them and in the end, had figured out a way to make them posionous. They could never understand how they worked or how to reproduce them, but when they began to loose power, they figured out how to make them poisonous. The shot could not possibly have of killed anyone (unless they had terrible luck and found the only Southron who bothered with aim), the poison, was a different story. It had started to work immediately after O´Neill was hit. It was practically miraculous that he was still alive. Janet had done everything he could for him, but even she had to admit she was loosing.

After helping Sam and Daniel, Kaia had demanded to see O´Neill. She took down five more soldiers before making it to his room. Shots would have been fired if Janet hadn´t interceded. She would not risk O´Neill´s life simply to capture a girl who seemed only interested in saving him. Janet did not know it, but Kaia came to respect her greatly for it. Janet reminded her of the Healers back home: they would risk life and limb simply to save another. It was honorable. Far more honorable than many of the other soldiers there.

Sam and Daniel were right behind Kaia. Neither of them attacked a soldier, but they did nothing to stop Kaia either. This fact did not go unnoticed by many in the base, including General Hammond, who was on his way down. He was not about to have two members of his best team cooperating with a single girl to wreak havoc all over the base. But for the time, General Hammond was not there, and Sam and Daniel had quite forgotten about him. Whatever Kaia had done to them had changed them greately, they felt different and they saw the world different. For now, all they cared about was saving O´Neill. They had not yet fought any of their own, but they would if it was necesarry. Teal´c had followed them reluctantly. They suddenly saw a great line between them and the Jaffa. They would fight him too.

------

Everything was extremely dark, more so than if the light had smiply been turned off. He was alone, in a vast void. Nothing. No one. He tried calling out but nothing answered, not even his own echo, or thoughts. Finally, he stayed still. Quiet. He was getting cold, and every second, it seemed harder to keep his thoughts clear. In the still darkness he thought he sometimes saw a light, but it was swallowed by the darkness. Other times he felt heat, but that died with the cold around him. The only thing he could keep clearly in his mind was this: he was going to die. He was dying. He found he had many regrets, but he could keep none of them in mind. In the end, as he found himself being still and trying to take comfort in being alone, he could gather only one sensation: dying sucked.

------

"It is admirable that he is still alive, your people are right to trust in you." Kaia´s words made Janet feel somewhat important, she shook the thought away. She did not need this child´s approval. She walked forward as she began to pull and take away all of the different machines and medicines going into and monitoring O´Neill. Kaia looked up at her, "Do not worry. You may be a commendable healer, but you do not know what ails him. I can heal him. In your care he would die a slow death."

Without another word she raised a bag that hung on her left side. Janet had no idea were it had come from. She´d taken it from the girl herself. She looked at Daniel and Sam, they didn´t know where the bag had come from either. No one thought it at the time, but Teal´c did not want to see O´Neill die anymore than the rest of SG-1. He had helped the girl, if only to save his friend. As long as she did this and no other thing, he had no intention of stopping her.

So it was that Kaia shut her eyes and for a moment she almost believed she was back home. Instead of cold concrete walls there was a light cloth between her and the night. The wind blew warm and there was soft grass beneath her feet. She remembered what her Master had once told her, before he´d died. She was two days away from meeting with the Great Babushka, the oldest dragon of all, only she could decide if someone bacame Padeos. She had already been tested by her Master several times, and she expected to be tested even more by the old dragon. Two days before Bolshoi stayed with her all night talking, as was his costum with every Padeos he´d ever trained before. Bolshoi had never liked the idea of Kaia becoming a warrior, he felt she had another future, one with less death and more life. Kaia knew in her heart that was not true, she may have been born with the skills of a Healer, but her duty was somewhere else. The Great Babushka only confirmed it when she was given clothes with a blue dragon upon them. Bolshoi had been devastated, even outraged, in the end he could not fight fate and he died defending the girl and the future that he´d not chosen for her. Kaia thought of this as she helped O´Neill. He reminded her so much of Bolshoi...

------

The darkness suddenly went incredebly bright. The cold...well the cold didn´t leave as quickly or as much. O´Neill couldn´t keep his eyes open, it was so bright. It took a second for him to realize that was not his biggest concern. There was noise, great noise everywhere. It felt like it would crack open his skull. He covered his ears, he cursed, he wriggled on the small bed. Dr. Fraser had enough, she pushed Daniel and Sam out of the way and tried to help O´Neill, but she didn´t know what was wrong. He´d been lying there, until Kaia had put something in his wound and given him something to smell. He wasn´t convulsing, he was desperate. The image of Sam in the hallway came to her all of a suden, whatever it was, Sam had suffered from it too. Her brain was going a mile a second. Chances were Daniel had been affected as well. What about Teal´c? He didn´t seem any different...something happened to the other three. Was it because of the symbiont? It was very likely...the others were changed then. How? Something altered them, bothered them greatly whenever they woke up. It was something to do with noise...or something. She had no more time, because Kaia grabbed O´Neill´s head and made him look at her. It happened much the same way as before. Janet felt useless, and she was quickly growing to deeply dislike this girl.

------

The darkness had left. His ears worked too well for comfort, somehow, he could never quite remember how, it all came under control when Kaia spoke to him. In that pitiful state he had not much choice but to trust her. She was right, he turned all the noise down...it was hard at first, it seemed he needed to concentrate way to much and he was very hungry. All was fixed in a few hours, when General Hammond took away Kaia and Janet and it was not so hard for Sam and Daniel to get him something. Daniel noticed how worried Sam looked. She´d actually turned three shades of green when they´d first seen him. In all the years they´d worked together, he´d never see them get so close so quick...for now he put those thoughts away. They had a lot more problems to worry about...


	24. At the base

And so it was. I looked at your faces and all I found was contempt. Fear too. You feared what I would do to you. Understandable. I could turn you into something not human. You sensed this and I knew it.

All those years of fighting, I am now more afraid than ever. Many I loved have died and I cannot even look upon their faces as their bodies sleep while their soul´s take the journey to the very borders of the North, to guard forever the home of our masters. An honor I will not have if I die here, if I stay here.

You see me and wonder what I am. I see you and wonder what I will become. Your own have not told you yet, but you sense it somehow. You fear them as well, but you fear to loose them forever more than what they may do to you. The trust I had hoped to gain at the beginning was spoiled before I begun. I look to my right and you have bound _her_. That is what you call her, you call me that as well. I do not trust you with my name, I fear what may become of it in your care. _Her_ name I trust to no one either.

The others understand. They have changed. They fight for me. It is a battle already lost. I have proven myself to you many times. I have done your "tests", endured your examining of my head, my mind and my body. I have shed more blood in containers than in any war I have fought. The others keep secrets from you. They hide. They lie. They are silent as well.

You have tried to turn them against me. Have tried to turn me against them. You have even threatened me. Empty. You know not the stubborness of my people, but I know the lack of patience of yours. I am only here because I do not wish to do you any wrong and because of them...they cannot go back with me, but they want to.

My life. My people´s life seems free to them. They do not know what it is like to forget your past, to not be allowed to know yourself. We are denied that pleasure since we are taken from our families. I do not even know my real name, the one my mother whispered to me. I do not even know if I have a mother.

There are rules too. You must stand when your master eats. You must obey his every wish and command. My master was kind to me. He made me stand in the rain for three days with nothing but a light cloak on. I almost died. My master was kind, he never made me stand in the snow, or in the sun. I have had to bury many of my people, and not all of them because they were killed in battle. This they did not see. They did not see the harshness of our lives. They have not seen the scars on all our bodies, they have not smelt our blood on their clothes for weeks at a time because you cannot afford to wash it off, because you are being hunted.

All is not tragedy. However much we suffer, we also celebrate Life. That they saw. They were seduced by it. After being in your humble care I understand them better. You watch them too. You have taken their freedom. They pace in their rooms, they have broken the beds and the walls. They refuse to talk, and you have reached the end of your patience.

I wish to trust you. The others trust you, no matter how harshly you treat them. In their hearts they know this to be true, even if they deny it. I find it hard to do what I wish. Always surrounded by people. More humans. Some of them I know I cannot trust. You insist on the man who insists on me looking at stains on paper. He believes he knows me. He believes I am "a primitive". You do not believe him but know not what else to do. There is the other one. The woman. The healer. I respect her. She cares nothing for me. I believe it to be pride. To her I am a child, I look like one. I have lived more than anyone near me. I would be dying were I human and looked my true age. You call me "child", "girl"...I am neither.

Today. I count seven of my days since I arrived. I can no longer sleep. I have been awake for four of my days. I pace constantly. You do not feed any of us enough and do not allow us to move. Our people need to feed, and we need to move. Otherwise we die. Another discomfort of being Padeos. As a result, I do not sleep. The others do the same. We are never together but can comunicate in a way you cannot guess. When we talk deep into your nights, all your equipment fails. Our minds are strong. Mine above them all, but the others are learning to control themselves. Already they can move faster, they can see farther, they can use their minds for things they never dreamed possible. But we do not sleep. We cannot. I tell you it will not kill us, but help us. You wish to believe me. You still doubt.

Today. The others have said nothing. You have guessed well enough.

My master calls. He is restless as well.

You look at me once again.

My master wishes for no more negotiations. I do not wish to offer what I can. I am afraid. I have been betrayed before.

You know I have something to say.

I will not speak. Not without the others. Not with anyone I do not trust in the room.

If I may not speak to you frankly, I will do it in another fashion.

Tomorrow. You will dream. You will be tired, you will feel sick. You will understand me and the others.

I should not show you all. I am not their keeper! They must tell you the truth. I tell you this. I show you this.

Tomorrow is now Today. You look pale. Worried. You doubt your dreams. I look at you.

_I send them to you. I wish to trust you. Please listen._

You close your mind. I cannot break my oaths. I cannot see your mind. When you sleep you are not in control, so I am not completely breaking my oaths. They may still be mended.

Another Tomorrow, another Today. I have reached the healer as well.

_You may dislike me but you care about them. You will kill them if you do not set them free. They will not flee, they will do as they must._

She turns her eyes away, but does not close her mind. I have reached her. The next morning I see the corridor again. It has not changed. It does not improve my mood.

_I wish to trust you. Please..._

The others tell you I am right. They know what I am doing. They insist they will never tell you what happened, but have agreed to help you trust me. They speak more openly to you. Your heart no longer doubts, but the soldier cannot, unless it is very clear.

_The path between the warrior and the heart should not be so hidden, nor so difficult to tread._

Part of you heeds me. I wait. Three more of my days. On the fourth, you open the door. You. The healer. You close the door.

"All right...I´m listening", you say.


	25. Why?

_Why would you do such a thing, child? You seek council and I am here. While I lived you followed me blindly, now that I am no longer there...why will you not listen, child? You must do this yourself, you must. You will die here if you do not._

"I will give you what you want, but I will not stand to be caged. I will not stand for the others being caged either. After you learn all you can, you will send us home."

_They do not know how to do that, child. You know this. Why then, do you insist? You have too much faith in humans. They will not be able to find a way back._

"We can´t just allow you to roam around the base freely...you have attacked my men before."

_Stubborn. Why do you trust him so? He cannot possibly understand you._

"I do not ask that we roam free. I ask that we are not caged. If it is your custom to confine those who do not belong here you need only ask."

_They do not deserve your kindness. Do they even dare to dream what you could do to them? It is within you, child, use it!_

"That´s not all...what did you do to my people?"

_The questions come. How will you answer them if you cannot lie and you do not wish to betray those you call friends?_

"Whatever I did was not to harm. My only intention was to help them. You must ask them for any other explanation."

_Why would you not use this diplomacy on Aurulo? He is a greedy man but no more. Why do you hate him so and yet you give these –humans-, who have hurt you and locked you, all your trust? Will you trust them with your name next?_

"My people won´t talk to me and I can´t just allow the one responsible for their present state to walk freely around my base."

_And you have not even begun to negotiate the price of your freedom, girl._

"I will say no more on the matter but, I can assure you that, wether a long or short time pass, they will eventually return to normal."

_You will say no more? You were always to innocent to be trusted, girl._

"It´s not just about my people. I have to answer to others as well and to be quite honest, they don´t want to let you go."

_Humans! You still trust them? Do not listen to their sweet poison, it will kill you! _

"In this matter we can agree. I am also pressured by my master."

_That look of fear, you see it? Was it not foolish enough to speak of me before them? All you will gain this way is to be trapped further. For one who claims to be a warrior, you are not as mighty as you believe._

"Your master? Is he here?"

_Do not tell them, girl._

"Yes. He is within me...Do not look at me as if I am mad! My people, some of us...legend says we only have half a soul. When my master died, half his soul stayed with me..."

_You foolish girl! You kill yourself, Koshka and myself! Is this the respect you would show to our people?_

"Are you seriously implying that someone else lives within your body?"

_They will think you nothing but evil from now on, girl._

"I am not as a Goa´uld...and that is what I may offer: a way to kill them, a way to protect yourselves."

_At least you know how to play with their interests. I never said you lacked wit, simply trusted too much._

"We already have ways to kill them and we can protect ourselves, as we have proven in the past."

_It is time to be silent, Kaia! For this will doom all of our people._

"I believe you call them genes...we have no such word in our language although we understand what it means. Goa´uld´s cannot take us as hosts, they die. We are a...toxin to them. It is in our blood."

_You have doomed our people._

"You mean to tell me you simply...kill Goa´uld´s?"

_They do not even understand you._

"If they enter our bodies, yes. They die."

_No price should be good enough to bare such dishonor._

"Just like that? What about the host?"

_They will never use this knowledge wisely. Stay silent, Kaia._

"The host lives, they feel ill for several days, but it is no worse than eating bad fruit. In exchange for this, will you set us free?"

_They will not._

"I can´t make any promises."

_You made promises. You have broken them._

"I trust you to make a wise decision, but I pray you do it soon. My master grows impatient."

_Do not bring me into your troubles!_

"Is that a threat?"

_They are nothing but foolish humans._

"No, but just as you may not ignore those that command you for long, I may not ignore my master. He is powerfull, he will want only to free me and the other and take us back to our home. Allow us to go free and you will gain great knowledge. You cannot keep us locked in here. Both the other and I are much more powerfull than we have shown, even more powerfull than the team you seem so worried about can imagine."

_Now, you will be locked for good._

"We don´t respond well to threats around here."

_See? Your rash actions have brought you nothing!_

"At least consider it. Please. How much more proof do you want of our willingness to cooperate? We stay here, we attack no one, we submit to your primitive tests...have we earned nothing?"

_They are humans, of course you have not._

"I didn´t say that."

_Do you believe you have won anything, girl? You will be condemned to stay in this room. You will never see the stars again, never live to see the moon renewed. You will never feel the wind on your face nor the smell of the clouds. You have condemned yourself, child. You wish only to trust them? You wish to trust all the world and the universe and that cannot be...and now you sit in silence and alone again. Why will you not liste, child? Why have you forsaken me? _


End file.
